2015 Men’s B1G Championships: Day 3 Prelims Real-Time Recap

We continue Day 3 of the B1G Championships with a monster line-up of events on today’s agenda, which includes the 400 IM, 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle, 100 breaststroke and 100 backstroke.  The Michigan Wolverines currently hold a 70 point lead over Indiana University after yesterday’s Finals, but look for the Hoosiers to fire off some big guns in Steve Schmuhl and Anze Tavcar, among others. Ohio State and Wisconsin will also look for their key players to step up, with Matt McHugh and Josh Fleagle trying to wrangle in some Buckeye points, while Cannon Clifton, Drew Teduits and last night’s big winner Matthew Hutchins make a move for the Badgers.

2015 B1G MEN’s CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Wednesday, February 25th to Saturday, February 28th
• University of Iowa Campus Recreation and Wellness Center Natatorium, Iowa City, IA
• Defending Champions: Michigan (results)
• Live Results
• Live Video
• Championship Central
• Friday Morning Timeline/Heat Sheets

Catching Up

• Day 1 Finals Recap
• Day 2 Finals Recap
• 5 Big Things from Day 2
• Day 3 Heat Sheet Preview

400 IM – PRELIMS

This morning’s prelims produced two NCAA automatic qualifying swims, with Michigan’s Dylan Bosch leading the way with 3:42.09 followed by Indiana’s Steve Schmuhl with a 3:42.31.  Bosch dropped about 3 seconds off of his prelims swim, while Schmuhl just destroyed his seed time of 3:51.74, lowering the mark by just under 9 entire seconds.  For his efforts, Schmuhl swam the 4th-fastest 400 IM time in Hoosier history and now owns all of the top 5 times for the program in this event.

Splits for both Bosch and Schmuhl are below (from live results):

Dylan Bosch 3:42.09

r:+0.71  23.58        50.13 (26.55)
1:18.63 (28.50)     1:46.88 (28.25)
2:18.40 (31.52)     2:50.44 (32.04)
3:17.29 (26.85)     3:42.09 (24.80)

Steve Schmuhl 3:42.31
r:+0.84  23.69        51.29 (27.60)
1:19.57 (28.28)     1:47.41 (27.84)
2:19.45 (32.04)     2:51.61 (32.16)
3:17.60 (25.99)     3:42.31 (24.71)

Minnesota sophomore Jakub Maly was the top seed going into today’s prelims and his morning performance netted him the 3rd-fastest time for tonight’s finals, clocking a 3:42.85 to also put himself in complete contention for a B1G title in the event.

Purdue senior Guillermo Blanco was 4th in 3:44.47 and Wisconsin junior Josh Anderson came in 5th with a time of 3:47.56.  Ohio State had teammates finish back-to-back-back with the 6th, 7th and 8th place finishes in the race, with Tamas Gercsak’s 3:47.61 and Dimitry, Dolgov’s 3:47.84 and Chris Depietro’s 3:48.08 to set the Buckeyes up for some major point damage in this event.  Note that it took a swift 3:45.64 to be invited to last year’s NCAA championships, so several of these fellas will be gunning for at least a second time drop to put them in at least an “invite position” should they not clear the NCAA”A” cut time of 3:42.40.

100 FLY – PRELIMS

With last year’s top 3 B1G finishers having graduated (OSU’s Tim Phillips, Minnesota’s Kyler Van Swol, and Michigan’s John Wojciechowski), the field is wide open for the taking among this year’s wide range of talent.

And, take advantage he did as Matt McHugh from the Ohio State University threw down this morning’s only NCAA “A” cut from the 100 fly, just sliding under the 45.91 qualifying mark with his 45.89.  A terrific time for the sophomore, with a new pool record to boot, whose best so far this season was 47.49.  Last year’s winning time was 45.62, so McHugh is on target to slay that mark with another solid effort tonight.

But rival Michigan tore up the field depth-wise, as is their modus operandi, with a huge 4 up/1 down total on the event.Michigan’s Pete Brumm dropped time as well to dip under the 47.0-mark, clocking a 46.53 to earn tonight’s 2nd seed.  He will be joined by Wolverine teammate Jeremy Raisky who came in 3rd with this time of 46.65. The two other Michigan swimmers also representing the maize and blue in tonight’s final are young freshman Evan White claiming the 5th seed in 46.85, followed by another freshman Aaron Whitaker in 6th in a time of 46.89. Minnesota has its lone Gopher swimmer, Daryl Turner, seeded 4th after today’s swim, as he charged into the wall with a time of 46.80, knocking about three tenths off his season best.  Wisconsin sprinter Cannon Clifton wound up 7th in 47.03. The number one seed going into the prelims, Iowa freshman Jerzy Twarowski ended up 8th this morning in 47.04.  He’ll need to take on a different approach tonight if he wants to get near his 46.70 seed time, let alone in the 45-range he’ll need (at the very least) to challenge the likes of McHugh, Brumm and Raisky.

200 FREESTYLE – PRELIMS

The prelims were absolutely stacked this morning and the 200 freestyle event was particularly intense.  Two swimmers finished under the 1:34.08 pool record time set by Mike Wynalda of Michigan in 2012, as freshman Hoosier Blake Pieroni touched in 1:33.83 just ahead of Buckeye Josh Fleagle who came in 2nd with a time of 1:33.85.  Pieroni set his school’s 200 freestyle record earlier in the meet as lead-off of the 800 free relay (1:33.10), while Fleagle made a big jump from his result last year, where he finished 7th overall in 1:35.01.  Both he and Pieroni are literally just a hair off of the NCAA “A” cut of 1:33.62, so look for them to have guns blazing tonight to get after that cut, as well as after each other, in their pursuit of the 200 free B1G title.

Jackson Miller is the 2nd Hoosier taking up a spot in tonight’s A-Final, coming in 4th with a time of 1:34.96. Along with Pieroni, these two could potentially inflict some point destruction against Indiana, its biggest rival for 2nd place in the team standings against leader Michigan, at least after Day 2.

Last night’s 500 free runner-up, Wolverine Anders Nielsen showed his versatility with a nice time 1:34.48, right around where he was seeded (1:34.66) and will be joined in the A-Final by teammate Justin Glanda who came in 7th in 1:35.12.  Wisconsin is another school that will have 2 swimmers represented in the top final, with Nicholas Caldwell (1:34.97) and Brett Pinfold (1:35.17) snagging the 5th and 8th positions, respectively.  Caldwell was the 2014 3rd-place finisher in this event, so look for him to be a threat lurking in mid-outside lane ready to make his move at any time.

Ohio State’s Michael Disalle makes it 2-for-2 in terms of finals, as the 8th-place finisher in the 50 free is set-up with the 6th seed in this 200 event, having earned a time of 1:35.08.  Disalle finished 5th last year, so he could also be a contender to blast out a career-best swim tonight.

100 BREASTSTROKE – PRELIMS

Depth was once again the name of the game with Michigan, as the Wolverines hammered out a 1-2 finish in the 100 breast while also claiming a swimmer in the 7th position.  Bruno Ortiz simply dominated the morning’s prelim event, cranking out a 51.77 for the 3rd-fastest time in the NCAA right now.  His time this morning dropped just about a second off of his previous season-far best of 52.71 from back in December.  Ortiz also earned an NCAA automatic qualifying time, as well as a pool record with his phenomenal outing.  The pool record was held by none other than Indiana great and USA National Teamer Cody Miller, who held the previous record of 52.34 from 2012.

Richard Funk (52.42) and Chris Klein (53.01) finished in 2nd and 7th for the Wolverines to once again give Michigan the opportunity to further distance themselves as a team from the rest of the field in the overall point standings.  Funk won the B1G men’s 100 breast title last year in a time of 51.75, so we all know of what this senior is capable.

Purdue senior Lyam Dias clocked a swift 52.72, dropping about a tenth of his seed time to qualify 3rd for tonight’s final.  Ohio State’s DJ MacDonald and Iowa’s Roman Trussov tied in 4th place, each touching the wall in 52.84. For Trussov’s effort, this is a career-best time and knocks the socks off of his 8th place 54.24 finish from just one year ago.

The Badgers and Hoosiers will each have a horse in tonight’s A-Final race, as Nick Schafer wound up 6th for Wisconsin in 52.87 and Tanner Kurz nabbed 8th in 53.16 for Indiana. For speed perspective, note that everyone in tonight’s A-Final swam beneath last year’s NCAA championships invite time of 53.23.

100 BACKSTROKE – PRELIMS

Last year’s 1-2 Finals finishers are moving into those same positions headed into tonight’s big backstroke sprint race. The 2014 B1G 100 backstroke title winner Shane Ryan (PSU) took the pole position from this morning’s prelims, swimming away with the top seed in a time of 45.78.  The junior has a sizable lead over the rest of field out of prelims, including over his senior teammate, 2nd-place finisher Nate Savoy in 46.05, although Savoy’s time is his season’s best by about 4/10.

The next five finishers in the event’s prelims were also able to stay within the 46-mark, led by Matt McHugh in 3rd place with a time of 46.37.  Remember that McHugh also is the day’s top seed in the 100 butterfly, so he was able to go 2-for-2 in his dirty double-up on events today.  Steve Zimmerman is the other Buckeye coming back for more blood tonight, earning the 5th spot in a time of 46.68.

Iowa’s Grant Betulius was listed as the top seed headed into prelims, but only managed a 46-mid on his swim this morning (46.53), as opposed to his 45.56.  Look for him to step it up in Finals to move into even higher scoring position to give his Hawkeyes some much-needed points.

Michigan will see two swimmers in tonight’s finals, with two freshman headed into the finals.  Aaron Whitaker placed 6th with his time of 46.69 and Tristan Sanders earned 8th with a time of 47.03.  For Whitaker’s part, the freshman came out of nowhere, as his best time of the season to this point was 48.38…holy time drop!

Wisconsin backstroke constant Drew Teduits will be the only Badger in the final, so his 46.83 needs to improve substantially to give his team the most for its single backstroke finalist’s swim.