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Bubolz and Alexandrov Star in Day Two Preliminaries
Kyle Bubolz's pool record time of 46:58 in the 100-yard butterfly was the highlight of Friday morning's preliminary events. The Northwestern sophomore shattered the automatic qualification standard in the event to edge Michigan's Davis Tarwater, who entered the prelims with the top regular-season time in the Big Ten. Behind the two leaders, 12 others provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships in the event, representing seven schools. Minnesota and Indiana will each have two athletes in tonight's Championship Final. Another pool record fell to a Wildcat when Mike Alexandrov earned the top seed in the 100-yard breaststroke. He and Purdue's Giordan Poglioli met automatic qualifying times and 13 others in the strong field set provisionally qualifying times. Indiana's Kevin Swander will enter the championship final with the third seed. The Gophers, as the only team with two finalists, will have an opportunity to make up valuable points on their closest competitors. Defending Big Ten Champion Adam Mitchell was of the 400-yard individual medley in the day's first event. In his last Big Ten Championship, the Minnesota senior will look to take home his second individual gold medal of the weekend in tonight's championship final. He will have to battle Michigan's Alex Vanderkaay, whose prelim time was just a half second behind Mitchell's and is one of eight provisionally qualifying times. There will be a lot of points at stake in tonight's final with three swimmers representing Indiana, and two each from Minnesota and Michigan competing, giving the squads a valuable opportunity to pull away from the field. Ohio State's Joe Doyle rounds out the field and will be the third seed in the finals. Michigan's Peter Vanderkaay picked up right where he left off by earning the top-seed in the 200-yard freestyle championship. The gold medalist in yesterday's 500-yard version beat the A-standard NCAA qualification time, and 13 others in the highly competitive field earned B-standard times. Vanderkaay's teammate Chris DeJong will have the second seed, while Minnesota's Tyler Schmidt will have the third. Schmidt will be joined by two teammates in the championship. Michigan and Indiana will each have two swimmers earning key points. Indiana, Minnesota and Ohio State all send two swimmer to the championship finals of the 100-yard backstroke. Ben Hesen of Indiana leads a close field into the finals, but has six swimmers within one second of his time during the preliminaries. Indiana and Michigan each will have 10 swimmers earning points in the swimming portion of tonights championships, with the potential to earn the most points. Michigan will have six swimmers in championship competition, and Ohio State will have five. Championship Finals 400-yard Individual Medey 100-yard Butterfly 200-yard Freestyle 100-yard Breaststroke 100-yard Backstroke Diving
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