Big Ten Championships: Michigan Takes First Day Lead

ANN ARBOR, Michigan, February 28. THE No. 4-ranked University of Michigan men's swimming and diving team dominated the first day of competition, winning four of the six events at the Big Ten Championships Thursday (Feb. 28) in Canham Natatorium. Headlining the night for the Wolverines were sophomore Chris Brady and juniors Bobby Savulich, Curtis Dauw and Jamie Martone, who won the 200-yard freestyle relay title, marking the first time Michigan has won the event since 1927.

The opening event was the 200-yard freestyle relay that was dominated by the Maize and Blue with an NCAA automatic qualifying and pool record time of 1:18.33.

Junior Matt Patton, freshman Tyler Clary and junior Sal Barba swept the top three spots of the 500-yard freestyle. Patton won the event for the Wolverines, clocking a new personal record, NCAA automatic and pool record time of 4:17.16. Patton's victory marked the 12th straight time a Michigan swimmer has won the conference title in the event. Clary and Barba also captured an NCAA automatic times of 4:17.20 and 4:1919, respectively.

The third event of the night was the 200-yard individual medley, which was captured by senior Alex Vanderkaay, marking the sixth conference title of his career. Vanderkaay touched the wall with an NCAA 'A' and meet record time of 1:43.88 and was followed by teammates sophomore Andre Schultz in third (1:44.38 'A'), sophomore Scott Spann in fourth (1:46.61 'B') and junior Curtis Dauw in fifth (1:46.68 'B').

Sophomores Alon Mandel, Spann and Brady, and junior Savulich clocked an automatic and pool record time of 3:08.08, marking U-M's seventh automatic qualifying time of the night to claim the conference title in the 400-yard medley relay.

Meanwhile, for Indiana, freshman Landon Marzullo took home the 1-meter diving title and Todd Patrick set school records in the 50-yard freestyle and 200-yard individual medley.

The Hoosiers are currently in second place with 206 points, trailing leader Michigan (292 points).

"We had a really nice performance tonight," said head coach Ray Looze. "We had a couple of things we had to overcome, like Ben (Hesen) slipping on his start there (in the 400-yard medley relay). But I thought he did a phenomenal job of pulling himself together. To go 46.9 and slip, most people are out; they are done.

"Tomorrow morning we need to make a stand. And our guys know that. Tomorrow is a good day for us, and we need to bring the heat. We need to make them (Michigan) start looking back. We need to put the heat on Michigan and see how they perform under pressure. Someone has to and we can be that group."

Marzullo set a Big Ten meet record with a six-dive score of 388.55, which ranks No. 2 on the Indiana all-time list. Taylor Roberts took fourth with 343.50 points, while David Piercy placed 10th with a score of 296.05, followed by David Legler in 11th (291.05). Will Bohonyi was 14th (274.35) as five IU divers finished in the points. Freshman Kris Hill placed 21st (252.15).

"We had a great day," said head diving coach Dr. Jeff Huber. "Everybody did a great job. I think that is the highest-ever finish for Will and David Legler. And Dave Piercy, that is the first time he has scored. Taylor did a great job in the prelims and just got a little over-pumped tonight. But I would rather see that than holding back.

"Landon did a great job for a freshman. He was off to a little bit of a rough start but then he got into a groove over his last three dives. "

The 200-yard freestyle relay team of Todd Patrick, Matt Lenton, Ben Hesen and Ante Zoricic opened the evening session with a school-record time of 1:18.34 to finish second. That is an NCAA automatic qualifying time and nearly a second better than the old mark of 1:19.29 set in 2002. The quartet missed out on the league title by just 1/100th of a second as Michigan went 1:18.33. In addition, Patrick's leadoff 50-yard time of 19.89 is a new school mark.

Patrick broke his own school record set earlier in the day with a time of 1:44.31 in the 200-yard individual medley, good for second place. A.J. Miller placed 11th with a time of 1:47.53, while Steven Murry was 14th (1:48.23) and Cody Weik 18th (1:50.04). Patrick swam the fastest 200-yard individual medley in the prelims with a then-Big Ten meet and school-record time of 1:44.51, topping the old IU record of 1:46.88 set by Kevin Swander in 2006.

Patrick's time is an NCAA A mark, while Miller, Murry and Weik all posted NCAA B cuts. Miller's prelim time of 1:47.30 was a career best, as was Weik's (1:48.46).

John Kevin Koehler took fourth in the 500-yard freestyle with a career-best mark of 4:20.75. Alex Brunfeldt finished first in the B final and seventh overall with a career-best time of 4:21.33. Both times are NCAA B cuts. Koehler finished fifth in the prelims (4:21.15) to earn his spot in the final, while Brunfeldt was eighth (4:22.20). Also swimming the 500 prelims were Titus Knight (19th- 4:26.20-NCAA B), Kurt Bassett (34th- 4:30.47) and Steffan Troxel (46th- 4:32.71). Knight's time was a season best.

Lenton took seventh in the 50-yard freestyle with a career-best time of 19.90, just 1/100th of a second off the school record of 19.89 set by Patrick in the 200 free relay earlier in the evening. Ante Zoricic was 27th (20.41), followed by Mark Wetzel (28th- 20.46) and Ronnie Hehn (38th- 20.87).

The evening session concluded with the 400-yard medley relay. Despite a slip on the backstroke start, the Hoosier quartet of Hesen, Pat Penoyar, Patrick and Lenton swam to a second-place finish in 3:11.29, an NCAA auto time.

Special thanks to Michigan and Indiana for contributing to this report.

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