After the first day of a big-time tri meet in Ann Arbor, the #5 Michigan men lead Virginia 118-48 and Penn State 128-38. Virginia is currently in front of Penn State 107-60.
On the women’s side, #5 Virginia is beating #20 Michigan 96-71 and Penn State 128-39. Michigan leads Penn State 117-50.
Men’s Meet
Dylan Bosch doubled with a pair of NCAA-leading times to help lead a deep Michigan team to a solid lead over both UVA and Penn State this afternoon in Ann Arbor.
Bosch swam a 1:45.86 in the 200 IM and a 1:44.69 in the 200 fly to win both events and take the top spot in the nation so far this season in each event. Bosch is a three-time NCAA championship A-finalist in both of those events, and won the 200 fly in 2014.
Teammate Evan White was close behind Bosch in the 200 IM, finishing in 1:46.07, which gives him the second-fastest NCAA time this season.
While Bosch was Michigan’s only swimmer to win two events, the Wolverines won three of the four other individual events this afternoon. Senior Anders Nielsen, who represents Denmark internationally, won the 500 free with a 4:22.20, the second-fastest time in NCAA this season, and sophomore PJ Ransford finished second in 4:24.24, which currently puts him fifth in the NCAA.
The Wolverines also got victories from Tristan Sanders and Paul Powers. Sanders won the 200 back by over three seconds with a time of 1:44.76, and Powers took the 100 free in 44.01.
Virginia’s Yannick Kaeser spoiled Michigan’s near-sweep of the individual events by winning the 100 breast in 54.48.
Michigan won both relays. Powers, Pete Brumm, Jason Chen, and Vinny Tafuto combined for a 1:19.89 to win the 200 free, making them one of only five teams to have gone under 1:20 heading into this weekend. Powers led off in 19.65, second in the NCAA so far this season. In the 400 medley relay, Michigan’s “B” relay of Luke Papendick, Chris Klein, White, and Nielsen just touched out the Michigan “A” team 3:15.96 to 3:15.99.
Penn State didn’t have anyone place higher than sixth in the individual events. The Nittany Lions seem to be in a rebuilding mode after losing their only two NCAA point scorers from the past three seasons. Backstroker Nate Savoy graduated, and freestyle/backstroker Shane Ryan is redshirting and training in Ireland with the goal of representing that country in next summer’s Olympics.
Women’s Meet
While the Virginia women lead the score after the first day of the competition, the biggest story is arguably the yards debut of Michigan freshman Siobhan Haughey. From what we can tell, this was Haughey’s first official SCY meet ever, as she grew up in Hong Kong and represents that country internationally. She has a record of success in long course, including a gold medal in the 100 free at the 2013 Junior World Championships, and so far, it looks like she’ll be able to duplicate that success in the short pool.
Haughey celebrated her 18th birthday by swimming a 1:57.20 to win the 200 IM, then doubled up later on the in the session with a 48.45 in the 100 free. Both those times are the fastest so far this season in NCAA Division I. Clary Smiddy was the only Wolverine to score in the 200 IM at the 2015 NCAA championships, and Haughey’s time from today is only a couple tenths of a second slower than what it took to get into the B-final this spring. Her 100 free time and 22.39 split on the 200 free relay also means that she should be a big help to Michigan’s sprint free relays, neither of which scored at NCAA’s this past season.
It is the Virginia Cavaliers, though, who led the team standings at the end, however. They began the afternoon with a victory in the 200 free relay, where Kasey Schmidt, Ellen Thomas, Caitlin Cooper, and Courtney Bartholomew went 1:31.04, second-fastest time in the nation so far this season.
The Cavaliers also won all the remaining individual events, beginning with defending NCAA champion Leah Smith taking the 500 free in 4:41.57, a time that is three seconds faster than anyone else’s in the country heading into this weekend.
Bartholomew, last year’s runner-up in the 200 back at the NCAA championships, took first in the 200 back this afternoon, beating Michigan’s Smiddy 1:54.04 to 1:55.12. Smith’s time jumps her past Hali Flickinger for the best time in the nation so far this season.
Virginia went 1-2 in the 200 fly, with Jen Marrkand taking first in 1:58.79, and Vivian Tafuto picked up a win in the 100 breaststroke with a 1:01.61.
In the final event, the Michigan women got the victory in the 400 medley relay, with their team of Smiddy, Emily Kopas, Haughey, and Ali Deloof beating the Cavaliers 3:37.06 to 3:38.93. That’s arguably a bit of an upset, as the Cavaliers finished second in this event at last season’s NCAA championships and actually finished below the existing US Open and NCAA records, but lost the event to Stanford due to a blistering split from Simone Manuel on the freestyle leg.
Complete day one men’s results here.
Complete day one women’s results here.
The meet concludes tomorrow with the 200 medley relay, 1000 free, 50 free, 200 breast, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 back, 400 IM, and 400 free relay.
Can you give us a little background on Haughey. I can’t find any times for her in SWIMS. She’s apparently from Hong Kong; these times are pretty remarkable.
If you type her name into our search engine, you’ll find a number of articles from the past few years. Here’s one: http://swimswam.com/siobhan-haughey-determined-to-achieve-fina-a-standard-in-kazan/.
I think Paul Powers did win 2 events also for Michigan. 50 and 100.
Vivian Tafuto is UVA not Michigan. Interesting to see Papendick doing well – and against his old school.
Wonder why Laura Simon didn’t swim.
Really cool to see Tafuto doing well in the 100 BR for the women.
I wanna see UVA break Stanford’s 400 Medley relay NCAA record!
Corrected Tafuto, thanks.