Championship Home

Matt Grevers won his fourth gold of the meet, but it was the Indiana Hoosiers who were the stars of the night.  Senior Kevin Swander posted the best time in the country on the year in the 100-breaststroke, and his team currently tops the Championship standings by 90 points.

The 100-yard breaststroke was everything it was made out to be.  Northwestern's Mike Alexandrov the Big Ten record, but was not enough to beat home-pool favorite Kevin Swander, whose time of 52.64 set Indiana, Championship, pool and Big Ten records to be gold-medal worthy.  Swander's time was the best in the country this season.  Giordan Poglioli of Purdue took bronze in the event, and led a group of 11 swimmers to qualify provisionally for the NCAA Championship. 

The 200-yard medley relay got the evening off to an exciting start.  Northwestern and Indiana were neck and neck through the first two legs, with Matt Grevers setting a fast pace in the backstroke.  Indiana's Ben Hesen stayed close though to allow teammate Kevin Swander to pull ahead in the breaststroke leg.  It came down to the wire with Todd Patrick of the Hoosiers and Northwestern's Ben Dexter in the last leg of the race.  Dexter touched two tenths of a second ahead to give the Hoosiers the championship and the team points that go with it and break the Big Ten record.  The times were the top two in the country on the season, and qualified both teams for the NCAA Championships.  The remaining four teams in the championship final each qualified provisionally.  Minnesota took third place, Ohio State came in fourth, Michigan took fifth with Wisconsin and Iowa rounding out the field. 

The 400-individual medley lived up to the hype of having eight participants who have NCAA standard times in the event.  Minnesota's Adam Mitchell, the top seed, and Michigan's Alex Vanderkaay separated themselves from the rest of the field early on and battled each other throughout the entire race in their congruent lanes.  It was a virtual rematch of the 200-IM, in which Mitchell edged Vanderkaay for the gold.  With the fans hanging on their every stroke, the two were within hundredths of a second of each other at every turn.  In the final turn, with Mitchell having the slightest of leads, Vanderkaay made his move, and touched the wall just five hundredths of a second ahead of Mitchell.  The victory was the ninth straight by a Wolverine, and third straight by a member of the Vanderkaay family in the event.

After the eighth event of the Championships, Indiana held a 43 point lead in the team championship race with 269.5 points.  Minnesota was next with 226 points, Michigan 211 and Northwestern 202. 

In the 100-yard butterfly, Kyle Bubolz was able to hold of Michigan's Davis Tarwater to successfully defend his Big Ten Championship.  En route to his first individual gold of the meet, Bubolz broke the Big Ten record that was previously held by Tarwater with a time of 46.40. Tarwater's time was also an automatic qualifying time as the two fell in the country's top four of the season, and 11 others posted times that qualified them provisionally.  Indiana freshman Nick Walkotten took bronze in the event, Purdue freshman Chris Etherington took fourth, and Joe Doyle of Ohio State took fifth.

The 200-freestyle was a tight race through the first 100-yards.  It was after the second turn that Peter Vanderkaay took control.  The All-American won the race by over a second, with teammate Chris DeJong taking silver while earning automatic qualification.  Ten other athletes qualified provisionally, led by a pair of Gophers, Tyler Schmidt and Igor Cerensek.  Two Hoosiers, Todd Patrick and Sergiy Fesenko, finished fifth and sixth and Minnesota's Michael Woodson and Wisconsin's Tom Molzahn rounded out the championship heat. 

Though Grevers didn't have the top preliminary time in the 100-yard backstroke, he was still favored to repeat as champion for the third consecutive year.  He thrived under the pressure, though not without outstanding competition from Indiana's Ben Hesen, who finished just three tenths of a second behind.  Grevers picked up his fourth gold of the Championships and broke the automatic qualifying time by over a second. 

Even the 3-meter springboard competition came down to the wire.  Kellen Harkness of Ohio State held the lead into the sixth round and delivered an outstanding dive to put the pressure on the remaining competitors.  It looked like the four Indiana divers were going to be out of the top spot until the eighth diver, Taylor Roberts, lived up to his number one seed in the event finals.  Roberts edged Harkness by only 1.6 points, and the crowd erupted as the score was posted and the Hoosiers were assured another gold medal. 

The 800-freestyle relay was a battle between two of the best teams in the country.  The teams from Minnesota and Michigan dominated the event, and made it a two-team race.  The Wolverines took a several-second lead over the field, but that gap was closed by Minnesota in the last two legs.  Igor Cerensek put a lot of pressure on Alex Vanderkaay, but Vanderkaay was able to sustain it and hold on for the one-second margin of victory.  Both qualified automatically for the NCAA Championship, and finished more than 10-seconds ahead of the rest of the field.  Four teams, Wisconsin, Indiana, Northwestern and Ohio State, qualified provisionally. 

At the end of the second night, Indiana holds a big lead with 497.5 team points.  Minnesota is next with 407, then Michigan with 348, Northwestern with 299, Ohio State with 250.5 and Purdue in sixth with 240.  In seventh place Wisconsin had 169 points, Penn State has 130, Iowa had 97 and Michigan State rounds out the field with 76.