Wins from Jaeger, Funk, Bosch, Help Michigan Pull Away at SMU Classic

TEAM SCORES AFTER DAY 2

1. Michigan – 333

2. Florida – 321

3. USC – 298

4. Louisville – 266.5

5. Purdue – 244.5

6. SMU – 210

Michigan opened night two by extending their lead early with back-back-to-back event wins, helping them pull away from Florida and USC to win the Men’s Classic at SMU.

A quick reminder of the format of this meet: the Classic at SMU is a two-day meet, with each of the six teams bringing squads of just 8 swimmers and 1 diver.  Each event runs an A final and a B final, with each team allowed to enter one swimmer in each final.

The Men’s Classic consists of four teams in the top ten of our most recent power rankings (#3 Florida, #4 Michigan, #6 USC, #10 Louisville), along with the star-studded #18 Purdue Boilermakers and the host SMU Mustangs.

Using the same personnel as their winning 400 medley relay from last night, but in a different order, the Wolverines blew away the field with Peter Brumm, Richard Funk, John Wojciechowski, and Bruno Ortiz winning by nearly 1.5 seconds in 1:26.18.  With the loss of Miguel Ortiz, Sean Fletcher, and Zach Turk, there were a lot of questions of whether Michigan could repeat as NCAA champions in the 200 medley relay.  However, the Wolverines hold the top time in the country in this event, and their swim tonight was the fastest non-midseason-invite time in the country this season.

Corey Main, Matt Elliott, Marcin Cieslak, and Brad deBorde of Florida finished second in 1:27.50, just ahead of USC’s quartet of Chase Bloch, Dimitri Colupaev, Michael Domagala, and Santo Condorelli (1:27.61).

The lights-out swimming continued in the men’s 500 free.  Connor Jaegar maintained Michigan’s run of four straight event wins with his victory in the 500 freestyle, touching in 4:16.54, the seventh fastest collegiate time of the year, and more than five seconds faster than any non-invite performer this season.  Christian Quintero of USC, the top NCAA performer this year, was close behind in 4:17.99.  Florida’s Sebastian Rousseau was third in 4:20.21.

Dan Wallace of Florida kept his excellent meet going by running away with the B-Final in 4:17.23, while Michael Wynalda of the Wolverines finished second in 4:20.31.  Overall, the top five times in this event were the fastest non-midseason-invite times in the country this year.

After his 52.3 100 breaststroke on night one, Richard Funk seemed destined to have a great 200 breaststroke.  The junior from Edmonton, Canada came through as expected, dropping a 1:54.75 for the win, making Funk the fourth fastest performer in the country this season.  Eduardo Solaeche-Gomez, the #3 performer in the country this season, finished second behind Funk in the A-final 1:56.42.

Florida and Michigan swapped places in the B-final, with Matt Elliott taking the top spot in a season-best 1:54.95, and Dylan Bosch, not typically known for his breaststroke abilities, finishing second in 1:55.98.

The Gators got their first win of the night in the 200 backstroke, with Corey Main pulling away from Grigory Tarasevich of Louisville and Chase Bloch of USC for the win in 1:43.18, just off his season-best of 1:43.03.  Tarasevich, a freshman from Omsk, Russia, touched in 1:44.65.  Bloch was third in 1:45.08.

Nolan Tesone of Louisville (1:44.51) and Connor Signorin of Florida (1:44.60) were first and second in the B-heat, respectively.

After Devin Burnett of SMU came away with the 3m diving title, Louisville’s Joao De Lucca kicked off the second half of the session with a win in the 100 freestyle, his second title of the meet.  De Lucca, the #2 performer in the country, touched in 42.98, making this the fourth time this season he has broken 43 seconds.  Bruno Ortiz of Michigan clocked a 43.37, just off his season best of 43.26, to finish second.  Cristian Quintero continued his busy weekend with a third place finish in 43.46.

Dylan Bosch helped the University of Michigan recapture momentum with a win in the 200 fly, finishing in 1:43.00. The sophomore topped his South African countrymate Sebastien Rousseau (1:44.16) in that race, and showing off a nice change-of-pace, Michigan’s distance star Connor Jaeger was a 1:46.40 to win the B-Final.

Though his breaststroke wasn’t quite good enough to win the 200 earlier in the meet, Florida’s Eduardo Solaeche-Gomez used his breaststroke masterfully to take the lead, and eventually win, the men’s 200 IM in the meet’s final individual event. The Spaniard kept close to Purdue’s Guillermo Blanco (1:44.89) and Michigan’s Kyle Whitaker (1:45.01) on the front-half of this race, and then split 29.68 on his breaststroke to edge ahead of them. That was just enough of a margin for him to take the win.

His teammate Dan Wallace won the B-Final in 1:45.95, but even that double-victory left them without a mathematical chance, barring a Michigan DQ, at winning the meet.

In the closing 200 free relay, USC swam to a 1:19.61, getting their best split from freshman Dylan Carter, who just joined the team this semester, in 19.46. Cristian Quintero led into him with a 19.51, ad he has to be the most versatile NCAA freestyler in the country this season.

Florida took 2nd for 20 big points, with a 1:19.67 to place .05 seconds back. Sophomore Corey Main anchored them in 19.41 and very nearly out-touched Cater.

Purdue took 3rd in 1:20.58: this is their best relay and they have a strong sprint group; and Louisville was 4th in 1:20.59.

Michigan’s men finished only 5th in 1:20.93. Their only sub-20 split was Michael Wynalda in 19.93, and had to use 200 flyer/IM’er Bosch on this relay, which is not ideal. The Wolverines will probably be able to put together a slightly better foursome at NCAA’s without the same roster limits as this meet had, but that relay finish can’t be totally reassuring as the Wolverines try to defend their NCAA title in March.

Full results available here.