Michigan Takes Commanding Lead; IU Relay DQ Costly at Big Tens

BLOOMINGTON, Indiana, February 28. THE Hoosiers, with a monster diving finale, had made a meet of it heading into the men's 400-yard medley relay at the Big Ten Men's Championships. Michigan, however, feasted on some IU misfortune as Indiana DQed the final relay to hand the Wolverines a commanding lead after day one.

While IU might have had the potential to give Michigan a run, giving up 34 points in the 400 medley relay dropped the Hoosiers firmly into second.

Olympian Connor Jaeger led off the evening strong for the Wolverines with a 4:13.44 to win the men's 500-yard freestyle. Wisconsin's Michael Weiss remained on his hip most of the way, but didn't push the pace until too late as he took second in 4;!4.07. Michigan had a big finale with Anders Nielsen (4:14.15) and Michael Wynalda (4:16.83) finished third and fourth, while Sean Ryan also placed sixth in 4:17.48.

The Hoosiers bounced back in the 200-yard IM with a 1-4-5-7 effort, while Michigan took 2-3-6-8 in what looked like a dual meet. Cody Miller won the race in 1:41.85, while Michigan's Dylan Bosch (1:42.59) and Kyle Whitaker (1:42.61) placed second and third in the medley event. Miller became the second-fastest 200 IMer in Big Ten history with his swim.

Michigan followed up with a sizzling 19.27 from Bruno Ortiz to capture the 50-yard free. That's a Michigan record, and the third-fastest swim in Big Ten history in the splash-and-dash. Purdue's Daniel Tucker checked in with a 19.35, while Minnesota's Derek Toomey, who blasted a 19.25 to lead the way in prelims, settled for a third-place 19.42.

Indiana had a ridiculous finale in diving with a 1-5-6-7-8 effort from the one-meter springboard. Darian Schmidt won the event with 432.15 points, while Michael Dell'Orco (338.95), Casey Johnson (337.50), Conor Murphy (333.25) and Bryce Ogden (332.25) also scored for the Hoosiers. Ohio State's Shane Miszkiel (402.40) and Purdue's Alec Back (368.00) placed second and third in the event.

Then, Michigan's Miguel Ortiz (46.05), Richard Funk (51.77), Sean Fletcher (45.61) and Bruno Ortiz (41.99) turned in a scorching time of 3:05.42 to win the 400-yard medley relay, a time that would have placed third at NCAAs last year. Meanwhile, Indiana, who had touched second, was disqualified for a double dolphin kick on the breaststroke leg.

Ohio State's Connor McDonald (47.48), Tyler Stevenson (53.68), Tim Phillips (45.62) and Jason Schnur (42.93) took second in 3:09.71, while Iowa's Grant Betulius (46.76), Roman Trussov (53.57), Byron Butler (46.22) and Jordan Huff (43.63) took third in 3:10.18.

Team Scores
Michigan 316
Indiana 237
Ohio State 170
Purdue 144
Minnesota 133
Wisconsin 101
Iowa 86
Penn State 75
Northwestern 70
Michigan State 60

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