Bowen Becker Goes 18.6 On First Morning of Men’s Big Ten’s

Photo Courtesy: Andy Ringgold / Aringo Photos

The first morning of the Men’s Big Ten Championships from Minnesota was a big morning for the Michigan Wolverines who are trying to get the conference title back from Indiana. The Hoosiers are the defending champions and won both relays last night to start the meet. Michigan though had the strongest morning with nine swimmers getting back in A-finals while Indiana got six. If Indiana will be in the lead at the end of tonight, it will be because of their divers.

Michigan’s Felix Aubock, Indiana’s Vini Lanza and Minnesota’s Bowen Becker all swam the fastest times in their events and will return as top seeds tonight.

Swimming in their home pool, the Golden Gophers’ Becker has a chance to upset Paul Powers of Michigan, who has won three straight conference titles in the 50 free.

Below is a list of the ups (A-finals), mids (B-finals) and downs (C-finals) for tonight’s swimming events. The teams are in order of team standings after last night’s relays.

Ups, Mids, Downs

Indiana, 6, 2, 6
Ohio State, 5, 5, 0
Michigan, 9, 7, 2
Minnesota, 1, 0, 6
Iowa, 0, 3, 4
Wisconsin, 2, 2, 3
Penn State, 0, 1, 2
Purdue, 1, 4, 0
Northwestern, 0, 0, 1
Michigan State, 0, 1, 0

500 Free

Michigan showed its dominance in the prelims of the 500 taking the first three spots. Defending champion Felix Aubock swam a comfortable 4:13.18 to get the top seed. PJ Ransford (4:15.41) and Ricardo Vargas (4:15.83) followed him for second and third.

If Michigan has a chance to knock off Indiana, they are going to rely on their distance swimmers to get them lots of points as Indiana only had one finalist in the race. Michigan also had three swimmers in the B-Final. Aubock should be capable of a sub 4:10 swim tonight and could challenge the pool record of 4:09.80 by Larsen Jensen from the 2007 NCAA’s.

Wisconsin’s Victor Goicoechea (4:16.21), Ohio State’s Brayden Seal (4:16.92), Nick Hogsed (4:17.07), Purdue’s Batuhan Hakan (4:18.43) and Indiana’s Adam Destrampe (4:19.00) also placed in the top eight.

 Event 3  Men 500 Yard Freestyle
==================================================================
  Meet Record: ! 4:10.63  2/23/2017 Felix O Auboeck, Michigan
         Pool: # 4:09.80  3/15/2007 Larsen Jensen, USC
                 4:12.49  A NCAA A Standard
                 4:24.99  B NCAA B Stanard
    Name           Year School               Seed    Prelims              
==================================================================
                      === Preliminaries ===                       
 
  1 Auboeck, Felix   SO Michigan-MI       4:12.02    4:13.18 qB     
             23.43        48.61 (25.18)
        1:13.95 (25.34)     1:39.27 (25.32)
        2:04.76 (25.49)     2:30.33 (25.57)
        2:55.98 (25.65)     3:21.80 (25.82)
        3:47.88 (26.08)     4:13.18 (25.30)
  2 Ransford, Patri  SR Michigan-MI       4:16.43    4:15.41 qB     
             24.00        49.69 (25.69)
        1:15.49 (25.80)     1:41.48 (25.99)
        2:07.27 (25.79)     2:33.04 (25.77)
        2:58.61 (25.57)     3:24.43 (25.82)
        3:50.29 (25.86)     4:15.41 (25.12)
  3 Vargas Jacobo,   FR Michigan-MI       4:16.50    4:15.83 qB     
             23.89        49.66 (25.77)
        1:15.79 (26.13)     1:41.65 (25.86)
        2:07.71 (26.06)     2:33.65 (25.94)
        2:59.26 (25.61)     3:25.04 (25.78)
        3:50.62 (25.58)     4:15.83 (25.21)
  4 Goicoechea, Vic  SR Wisconsin-WI      4:23.81    4:16.21 qB     
             23.92        49.80 (25.88)
        1:15.85 (26.05)     1:41.89 (26.04)
        2:07.88 (25.99)     2:33.89 (26.01)
        2:59.90 (26.01)     3:25.96 (26.06)
        3:51.55 (25.59)     4:16.21 (24.66)
  5 Seal, Brayden C  SR Ohio St-OH        4:19.37    4:16.92 qB     
             23.81        49.24 (25.43)
        1:14.99 (25.75)     1:40.97 (25.98)
        2:07.35 (26.38)     2:33.00 (25.65)
        2:59.18 (26.18)     3:25.41 (26.23)
        3:51.63 (26.22)     4:16.92 (25.29)
  6 Hogsed, Nichola  JR Ohio St-OH        4:20.03    4:17.07 qB     
             24.02        49.78 (25.76)
        1:15.69 (25.91)     1:41.68 (25.99)
        2:07.81 (26.13)     2:33.95 (26.14)
        2:59.95 (26.00)     3:25.90 (25.95)
        3:51.79 (25.89)     4:17.07 (25.28)
  7 Hakan, Batuhan   FR Purdue-IN         4:24.55    4:18.43 qB     
             23.50        48.90 (25.40)
        1:14.92 (26.02)     1:41.10 (26.18)
        2:07.44 (26.34)     2:33.42 (25.98)
        2:59.72 (26.30)     3:26.05 (26.33)
        3:52.56 (26.51)     4:18.43 (25.87)
  8 Destrampe, Adam  JR Indiana-IN        4:25.65    4:19.00 qB     
             23.93        50.22 (26.29)
        1:16.68 (26.46)     1:43.03 (26.35)
        2:09.33 (26.30)     2:35.48 (26.15)
        3:01.72 (26.24)     3:27.69 (25.97)
        3:53.59 (25.90)     4:19.00 (25.41)

200 IM

Indiana’s Vini Lanza posted the fastest 200 IM time of the morning with a 1:42.06 as he was one of three Indiana Hoosiers in the A-final for tonight. Lanza will be joined by Ian Finnerty (1:43.35) and Blake Pieroni (1:43.92) in the A-final as Michigan also got three swimmers in the championship final.

Evan White (1:42.54), Thomas Cope (1:43.11) and Jacob Montague (1:44.06) will swim in the championship final for the Wolverines. Ohio State’s Paul Delakis (1:43.39) had the biggest drop this morning with a five second drop from his seed. He will be joined in the final by teammate Andrew Loy (1:44.24) who also had a big drop of three seconds from his seed.

 Event 4  Men 200 Yard IM
==================================================================
  Meet Record: ! 1:41.14  2014      Kyle Whitaker, Michigan
         Pool: # 1:41.57  3/24/2011 Austin Staab, STAN
                 1:41.88  A NCAA A Standard
                 1:49.09  B NCAA B Stanard
    Name           Year School               Seed    Prelims              
==================================================================
                      === Preliminaries ===                       
 
  1 Lanza, Vinicius  JR Indiana-IN        1:43.15    1:42.06 qB     
             21.96        48.14 (26.18)
        1:17.50 (29.36)     1:42.06 (24.56)
  2 White, Evan S    SR Michigan-MI       1:44.24    1:42.54 qB     
             22.45        48.35 (25.90)
        1:17.41 (29.06)     1:42.54 (25.13)
  3 Cope, Thomas E   SO Michigan-MI       1:44.45    1:43.11 qB     
             22.11        48.78 (26.67)
        1:17.75 (28.97)     1:43.11 (25.36)
  4 Finnerty, Ian J  JR Indiana-IN        1:45.55    1:43.35 qB     
             22.43        48.85 (26.42)
        1:17.78 (28.93)     1:43.35 (25.57)
  5 Delakis, Paul J  FR Ohio St-OH        1:48.13    1:43.39 qB     
             22.93        49.25 (26.32)
        1:18.83 (29.58)     1:43.39 (24.56)
  6 Pieroni, Blake   SR Indiana-IN        1:45.57    1:43.92 qB     
             21.85        48.66 (26.81)
        1:19.33 (30.67)     1:43.92 (24.59)
  7 Montague, Jacob  SO Michigan-MI       1:43.75    1:44.06 qB     
             22.44        49.59 (27.15)
        1:18.52 (28.93)     1:44.06 (25.54)
  8 Loy, Andrew D    SO Ohio St-OH        1:47.14    1:44.24 qB     
             22.57        48.48 (25.91)
        1:19.19 (30.71)     1:44.24 (25.05)

50 Free

Minnesota’s Bowen Becker is swimming in his home pool and swam an 18.69 to break the meet record held by Michigan’s Paul Powers. Becker swam an 18.2 anchoring Minnesota last night and it is no surprise he was the only swimmer to break 19 seconds this morning. Becker is ahead of three-time defending Big Ten Champion Powers of Michigan, who swam a 19.04 this morning. Powers had the meet record that was an 18.80 from last year.

Indiana’s Ali Khalafalla (19.22) is the third seed with his Hoosier teammate Bruno Blaskovic (19.36) sitting in fifth. Michigan upped the ante with three total A-finalists with Powers, Gustavo Luiz Borges (19.26) and James Peek (19.42).

Ohio State’s Kalvin Koethke (19.58) and Wisconsin’s Tyler Zelen (19.59) will also swim in the championship final.

 Event 5  Men 50 Yard Freestyle
==================================================================
  Meet Record: ! 18.80  2/23/2017 Paul Powers, Michigan
         Pool: # 18.66  3/24/2011 Nathan Adrian, CAL
                 19.05  A NCAA A Standard
                 20.19  B NCAA B Stanard
    Name           Year School               Seed    Prelims              
==================================================================
                      === Preliminaries ===                       
 
  1 Becker, Bowen T  JR Minnesota-MN        19.49      18.69!qA     
              9.19         18.69 (9.50)
  2 Powers, Paul Q   SR Michigan-MI         19.21      19.04 qA     
              9.21         19.04 (9.83)
  3 Khalafalla, Ali  SR Indiana-IN          19.55      19.22 qB     
              9.42         19.22 (9.80)
  4 Borges, Luiz Gu  FR Michigan-MI         19.43      19.26 qB     
              9.27         19.26 (9.99)
  5 Blaskovic, Brun  FR Indiana-IN          19.76      19.36 qB     
              9.50         19.36 (9.86)
  6 Peek, James H    SR Michigan-MI         19.30      19.42 qB     
              9.29        19.42 (10.13)
  7 Koethke, Kalvin  SO Ohio St-OH          20.10      19.58 qB     
              9.31        19.58 (10.27)
  8 Zelen, Tyler D   FR Wisconsin-WI        20.29      19.59 qB     
              9.45        19.59 (10.14)

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