Michigan Wins Big Ten With Depth, Distance and Diving

gillian ryan ncaa women's division i distance freestyle

Michigan's G Ryan. Photo Courtesy: Mike Comer and Shanda Crowe/ProSwimVisuals.com

By Dan D’Addona.

The Michigan women proved to be the leaders and best in the Big Ten once again, repeating as conference championships behind their depth, distance and divers.

The Wolverines finished the four-day meet with 1,287 points, pulling away from Indiana (1,125), Minnesota (1,101.5) and Wisconsin (1,086) on the final day to win the crown. It was Michigan’s 16^th Big Ten title and first repeat title since 1997-98.

Michigan junior G Ryan became the first Michigan swimmer in nine years to win the 1,650-yard freestyle (15:44.93), while also winning the 500 freestyle.

Siobhan Haughey won the 200 freestyle (1:42.949, lowering her own Big Ten Championship meet record, and the duo teamed with Ryan, Yirong Bi and Gabby DeLoof to win the 800 freestyle relay.

Haughey, an Olympian for Hong Kong, had a rough start to the meet after being disqualified in the 200 IM for not finishing on her back despite finishing nearly a second ahead of Olympian Lilly King of Indiana.

King was named the Big Ten Swimmer of the Meet, also sweeping the breaststroke events.

She won the 100 breaststroke in a stunning 56.30 to reset the entire record book. Her time lowered her own American, NCAA, and Big Ten record of 56.85, along with the Big Ten meet record of 57.35, and the pool record of 57.46.

King’s performance gave a ton of points to the Hoosiers, who just didn’t have the same depth as the Wolverines, who managed to hold off the field even without Haughey’s points in the 200 IM.

But it wasn’t decided until late in the final day.

Michigan held just a 14.5-point lead coming into the day but expanded it thanks with several strong performances. Three swimmers — junior Clara Smiddy in the 200-yard backstroke (1:51.39, an NCAA A cut), Haughey in the 100-yard freestyle (47.70) and freshman Vanessa Krause in the 200-yard butterfly (1:55.74, a new school record) — picked up runner-up finishes. The 400-yard freestyle relay team of sophomore Catie DeLoof, Haughey, sophomore Rebecca Postoll and Gabby DeLoof also finished runner-up with a school-record time (3:13.59).

But it was the Michigan divers that really provided the difference.

On the final day, all five divers scored on platform for the Wolverines to provide some insurance in the form of 61 points, and four made the consolation final with NCAA Zone Diving scores. Sophomore Dani VanderZwaag led the way, improving 22 places over last year to finish 11th with a career-best and NCAA Zone Diving qualifying score of 264.45. Seniors Allie Murphy (12th, 261.25) and Keegan McCaffrey (13th, 261.00) and freshman Kristen Hayden (16th, 249.35) rounded out the consolation final. Freshman Lucy Roberts added five points with a 20th-place finish (218.10).

Name*

Email*

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use