Indiana Locks Up Fourth Straight Title With Strong Prelims: Day 4 Ups/Mids/Downs

2025 MEN’S BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Dates: Wednesday, February 26–Saturday, March 1
• Location: Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center, Minneapolis, MN
• Defending champions: Indiana men (3x)
• Live Results
• Live Video
• Championship Central
• Fan Guide
• Teams: Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, USC*, Wisconsin
• Results: Day 1 | Day 2
• Recaps:
  • Prelims: Day 2 | Day 3 |Day 4
  • Finals: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3

For those unfamiliar with swimming terminology, the concept of “Ups” and “Downs” is a good way to track which teams performed best at prelims. In prelims, swimmers qualify for one of three finals heats: the top eight finishers make the ‘A’ final, places nine through 16 in the ‘B’ final, and place 17 through 24 in the ‘C’ final. In finals, swimmers are locked into their respective final, meaning a swimmer in the B heat (spots 9-16) can only place as high as 9th or as low as 16th, even if they put up the fastest or slowest time of any heat in the final.

With that in mind, we’ll be tracking “Ups,” “Mids” and “Downs” after each prelims session. “Up” refers to swimmers in the ‘A’ final, “Mid” to swimmers in the ‘B’ final and “Down” to swimmers in the ‘C’ final.

Team Standings After Day 3

1. Indiana – 1,067
2. Michigan – 784.5
3. Ohio State – 731
4. USC – 588
5. Minnesota – 512.5
6. Wisconsin – 498
7. Northwestern – 473
8. Purdue – 406.5
9. Penn State – 372.5

Indiana has a very solid lead going into the final night, and they had a strong prelims performance this morning to cement that lead.

Rivals Michigan and Ohio State are battling it out for the 2nd place spot, with Michigan having the leg up going into the final session. Michigan also had a stronger prelims performance which will help them stay ahead pending the mile and diving. We do not have these events included in the scores

Ups/Mids/Downs

Indiana has the most ‘A’ finalists, likely locking up their conference title. Michigan comes in 2nd with a projected 60 points over Ohio State thanks to their eight ‘A’ finalists across the prelims events.

After Ohio State in 3rd, the rest of the teams kind of fall in place without much potential for movement. The closest race is the one happening between Minnesota and Wisconsin for 5th. Our projections have Minnesota up by just 1.5 points at the end of todays session, without factoring in miles and diving, so that will be a close race.

Purdue and Penn State are also relatively close, only eight points apart based on our projections, with Purdue coming out just slightly on top.

Projections + Combined Team Scores

1. Indiana: 1404.0
2. Michigan: 1013.0
3. Ohio State: 893.5
4. USC: 746.5
5. Minnesota: 658.5
6. Wisconsin: 657.0
7. Northwestern: 583.0
8. Purdue: 464.5Penn State: 458.0