Courtesy: Indiana Athletics
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – For the second-straight season, Indiana swimming and diving swept the men’s Big Ten postseason awards as part of its five-award haul, the conference office announced on Thursday (April 4).
Indiana has captured 10 of the last 12 men’s postseason awards going back to 2022, as the Hoosier men have captured three consecutive Big Ten Championships and top-five finishes at the NCAA Championships.
The Hoosiers won the conference championship double, winning both the men’s and women’s titles for the first time since 2019. IU is one of two Big Ten programs to win both championships within the same season. Indiana’s men finished fourth at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships, and the women placed seventh, representing the Big Ten’s top national finishers at each competition.
Big Ten Men’s Swimming Coach of the Year: Ray Looze
Big Ten Women’s Swimming Coach of the Year: Ray Looze
Indiana head swimming coach Ray Looze is the only Big Ten head coach to win both the men’s and women’s coach of the year award in the same season, completing the feat for a third time this season. He was previously awarded both in back-to-back seasons: 2016 and 2017. Looze is now a 14-time Big Ten Coach of the Year, winning his eighth men’s award and sixth women’s award. He’s won the men’s award each of the last three seasons and seven times in the last nine years.
The Indiana women tied their program-record seventh-place national finish for a second-straight season and have placed top 10 in the NCAA team standings at seven of the last eight national meets. Junior swimmers Anna Peplowski and Ching Hwee Gan combined for three medals. Four relays reached the podium for the first time in program history, and all five scored for the first time since 2004.
IU’s men earned their fifth top-five national finish in six years. Fourteen Hoosiers combined for 43 All-America honors, both totals are Indiana’s most since 19 athletes from the 1974 squad totaled 50 honors in a second-place team finish.
Big Ten Men’s Diving Coach of the Year: Drew Johansen
Indiana head diving Drew Johansen repeats as the Big Ten Diving Coach of the Year, his third straight conference coaching award after also winning the women’s honor in 2022. Johansen is now a six-time winner, earning his fourth men’s coach of the year award.
Johansen led his squad to a dominant performance at the 2024 NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving and Championships and was named the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) Men’s Diving Coach the Year earlier this week. Hoosier divers scored 121 points, better than all but 10 combined swimming and diving programs, and 66 points better than the next-best diving program (Ohio State divers totaled 55 points). IU has eclipsed 100 diving points at back-to-back NCAA meets, earning 104 points in 2023.
At the NCAA Championships, the trio of juniors Carson Tyler and Quinn Henninger and sophomore Maxwell Weinrich combined for a program-record six medals from the three diving events – two gold, two silver, two bronze – and eight All-America finishes.
Big Ten Men’s Swimmer of the Year: Brendan Burns
Senior Brendan Burns caps his career with his third-straight Big Ten Swimmer of the Year award after perhaps his most challenging NCAA Championships yet.
On the third day of the meet, Burns repeated as NCAA Champion in the 100-yard backstroke in 43.86 despite swimming from lane one. Burns is a three-time national champion, also winning the 200-yard butterfly in 2022.
On the last day, Burns took on the daunting 200-yard backstroke, 200-yard butterfly double for the first time in his career and reached the podium in each event. Burns reached the podium in all six events he swam, including three relays.
Big Ten Men’s Diver of the Year: Carson Tyler
Junior Carson Tyler secured Indiana’s fifth Big Ten Diver of the Year award in six years after former teammate Andrew Capobianco won four between 2019-2023. Tyler was also named the CSCAA Men’s Diver of the Year and Big Ten Diver of the Championships.
Tyler won two NCAA Championships, repeating as platform champion after earning his first-career 3-meter title one day before, which was won by Capobianco last season. Combining the championships and a bronze-medal finish on 1-meter, Tyler totaled 56 points over the week – a total that outscored every other diving program.
Tyler won on platform with a score of 515.75, IU’s best-ever mark at an NCAA Championships.
The fact that IU’s divers alone would have been 11th with 3 athletes is beyond impressive.
Ray is a GREAT Coach and person!
lmaooo
Excellent breast stroke analysis.
Love Ray