Texas-Michigan-Indiana: Redux
In part two of this annual classic, the Texas and Michigan men’s squads will travel to Bloomington this weekend to take on the Indiana Hoosiers. In past seasons, Texas and Indiana have faced off, with the Longhorns taking the battle 179-149 last year. The Michigan Wolverines are a very nice addition to the matchup for this season.
Texas, the defending National Champions, are coming off of a nice win last week at the Southwest Collegiate Plunge. We still don’t, however, have a great idea of their depth, as they left a good portion of their squad home, including NCAA finalists Jackson Wilcox and Scott Spann; as well as much of their freshman class.
Michigan looked very fast in the first test of their 20-strong freshman class by knocking off Notre Dame 2 weeks ago. Indiana has been surprisingly good so far, including scoring a Big Ten Swimmer of the Week honor for versatile backstroker Eric Ress.
This meet will feature a slew of current and former high school National Record holders, including Michigan’s Kyle Whitaker and Texas’ Jimmy Feigen and Cole Cragin.
Cragin and Ress will be featured in one of the best battles of the meet in the 100 backstroke. Both swimmers sit top-10 nationally, in the event, though Ress is a little better (2nd nationally) in the 200. I’d look for both swimmers to go in the 48-high range, resulting in a great early-season battle.
Another great showdown will be between Kyle Whitaker, a freshman from Michigan, and Austin Surhoff, a sophomore at Texas. Last year, in his first season of college swimming, Surhoff took the nation by storm and won the 200 IM. This year Whitaker, who is a former National HS record holder in this event, could threaten to do the same. Early this season, Whitaker has posted much better times (1:50.3 to Surhoff’s 1:52.5), but Surhoff has the backing of that National Title. Ress and D, who swam a 1:51.6 against Kentucky, and D’Innocenzo, who marked a 1:52.1, should also throw their hats into this race.
Though virtually every race in this meet will have a show down of some sort, by far the most epic will be the 200 freestyle. This meet will feature three of the best 200-freestyle programs in the country, as each team has 2 swimmers in the top 40 nationally this season. On paper, Indiana’s Titus Knight and Eric Ress have the edge, as they sit 8th and 10th nationally this season. In reality, however, all 6 of these competitors sit within a second-and-a-half of each other, so this battle will be truly outstanding.
I think this meet will be very close on all three parts; much closer than many will expect it to be. Indiana and Michigan probably come into the meet swimming the best (relative to expectations) out of the three teams, but we still haven’t seen much of Texas’ lineup. Texas probably wins the meet on the basis of their sprint relays, but don’t expect a blowout.
Live Results available through the Indiana Website located here.
Other Big Ten Meets
The Big Ten has a jam-packed schedule this weekend. All times listed are Eastern Time. Key meets have been bolded.
Denison/Cleveland State at Ohio State-Friday at 5:30
Illinois vs. Michigan State/Southern Illinois (Women)- Friday at 5:00
Purdue at Northwestern- Friday at 6:00
Iowa at Minnesota- Friday at 6:00
Purdue at Notre Dame- Saturday at 1:00
UW-Milwaukee/Illinois-Chicago at Northwestern (& North Dakota Men)-Saturday at 2:00
North Carolina at Minnesota (Women)- Saturday at 1:00
Good meet but I expected the 100/200 free to be faster as well as the breaststroke, especially considering who was swimming it. And yes, I know its early and everyone is training hard ..still
Madwed looked very good early season and Wilcox looks like he is rebounding after a disappointing summer, nice job by Wojo and Whitaker