Brendan Burns, Phoebe Bacon Named Big Ten Swimmers of the Year

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Brendan Burns, Phoebe Bacon Named Big Ten Swimmers of the Year

Indiana’s Brendan Burns and Phoebe Bacon of Wisconsin were named the Big Ten Swimmers of the Year on Thursday by the conference.

Indiana cleaned up the men’s awards, with Ray Looze as the men’s and women’s swimming coach of the year, while Drew Johansen was named the top men’s diving coach. Burns is the swimmer of the year for the third straight season, while Bacon also repeats as women’s swimmer of the year.

Minnesota picked up two honors, with Vivi Del Angel as the top diver and Wenbo Chen as the top diving coach.

Men’s Swimmer of the Year: Brendan Burns, Indiana
Women’s Swimmer of the Year: Phoebe Bacon, Wisconsin
Men’s Diver of the Year: Carson Tyler, Indiana
Women’s Diver of the Year: Vivi Del Angel, Minnesota
Men’s Swimming Coach of the Year: Ray Looze, Indiana
Women’s Swimming Coach of the Year: Ray Looze, Indiana
Men’s Diving Coach of the Year: Drew Johansen, Indiana
Women’s Diving Coach of the Year: Wenbo Chen, Minnesota

Burns, Tyler and company led Indiana to their third straight and 30th overall Big Ten men’s title at the conference meet. Burns defended his title in the 100 backstroke at the NCAA Championships. He finishes his storied career with three NCAA titles, 25 All-America honors and 22 Big Ten championships. Burns finished seventh in the 200 back and eighth in the 200 fly at NCAAs.

Big Ten Swimming News

Tyler repeated as the NCAA champion on platform with a magisterial 515.75 points, the highest ever at NCAAs for a member of the Hoosiers’ storied diving program. Tyler added the NCAA title on 3-meter and was third on 1-meter. He was named CSCAA’s Diver of the Year.

Bacon won the NCAA title in the 200 back for the Badgers. She added All-American nods in the 200 individual medley (fifth place) and 100 back (fourth). She’ll be sticking around Madison to vie for more next season in her fifth year.

Del Angel became the first Minnesota diver to win a platform diving NCAA title, her score of 327.90 getting the job done.

Looze led the Hoosiers to a fourth-place finish at NCAAs, two points shy of third. The Hoosiers won three national titles and eight medals, garnering 43 All-American nods on the men’s side. The Hoosier women finished seventh at NCAAs after winning their first Big Ten title since 2019. Looze’s new Coach of the Year honors makes 14 all-time for him (six women’s, eight men’s).

Johansen is the Diving Coach of the Year for the fifth time. He led Tyler not just to two gold medals but two 1-2 finishes, with Quentin Henninger on 3-meter and Max Weinrich on platform. Henninger also won silver on 1-meter with Tyler third, Indiana taking six of nine medals.

Chen is the Diving Coach of the Year for the second straight season. The Golden Gophers’ diving points, which included Elna Widerstrom finishing sixth on 1-meter, landed Minnesota 20th as a team at NCAAs.

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