The Indiana Hoosiers took home their third consecutive and 30th overall Big Ten Championship on Saturday, March 2 at McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion in Columbus, Ohio. After four intense days of action-packed races, the Hoosiers came out on top against top rivals Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Northwestern, Penn State and Purdue. IU finished with a final score of 1,520 points, which was 294 points ahead of second-place finisher Ohio State.
IU completed its second Big Ten Championship Double in program history after both IU men and women’s teams won their Big Ten Championship division titles this singular season. IU is one of two Big Ten schools to accomplish this honor (Michigan is the other).
After a rough start to day one, the Hoosiers took charge and reclaimed their dominant status during the remaining competition days.
"What an amazing last two days from our men," IU head swimming coach Ray Looze said in a release from IU Athletics. "After a rocky Thursday, this team turned it around with two of the better days that I have ever been part of with this program and then just ran away with it by almost 300 points. It's hard to do that in sports, when things don't go your way, and it shows the character of these guys.”
In the diving finals, Carson Tyler and Quinn Henninger placed first and second in the 3-meter diving contest. Tyler also finished first in the platform contest with Max Weinrich placing third. Tyler’s final score of 453.90 points along with his platform performance score of 462.60 contributed to him winning “Diver of the Championship” for his second consecutive year. After Tyler’s pool performances this year, he now has won a Big Ten first-place finish for each diving board.
Jassen Yep (1:50.40), Josh Matheny (1:51.50), Toby Barnett (1:51.95), and Maxwell Reich (1:52.07) are officially the best breaststrokers in the Big Ten after these swimmers claimed the first, second, third and fourth place positions during the 200-meter breaststroke competition. In addition to his victory, Yep earned a Sportsmanship Award. Brendan Burns won his fourth 200-meter backstroke competition with Kai Van Westering finishing second. Tomer Frankel took second place while Burns took third place during the 200 fly competition.
With the NCAA Championships in four weeks, the training does not stop here. IU’s Big Ten Championship win is only the beginning for this team. Tune in on March 8 and 9 for IU’s Bloomington “Last Chance” meet. In addition, the NCAA Championship will take place March 27-30 in Indianapolis where the Hoosiers will close out their undefeated season.
“It's humbling to get another (Big Ten) title,” Looze said, “and we know it's going to be difficult to keep going, but we're going to keep putting one foot in front of the other."
