Michigan Wins 6th Straight Men’s Big Ten Title

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Photo Courtesy: Dave Wegiel

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By Andy Ross, Big Ten Beat Writer

Michigan collected three individual wins on Saturday night at the 2016 Men’s Big Ten Championships from West Lafayette, Indiana and cruised to its sixth straight team title. The Wolverines also clinched their 40th overall Big Ten championship crown and have swept the women’s and men’s meet for the first time since 1997.

1650 Free

PJ Ransford dominated the 1650 after sticking with the field early. Ransford finished second at NCAAs last year as a freshman in the event and is one of the favorites moving forward. Ransford went 14:36.61 tonight to break Peter Vanderkaay’s 2004 pool record. Matt Hutchins of Wisconsin lost contact early but he finished second at 15:00.80 and Brayden Seal of Ohio State was third at 15:06.39. Michigan has now won 21 of the last 24 Big Ten titles in that event. Wisconsin placed three in the top eight to pull themselves back into fourth place contention with Minnesota and Indiana held a 11.5 point lead over Ohio State for second.

  1. PJ Ransford, Michigan, 14:36.61
  2. Matt Hutchins, Wisconsin, 15:00.80
  3. Brayden Seal, Ohio State, 15:06.39
  4. Joseph Long, Ohio State, 15:09.39
  5. Cameron Stitt, Michigan, 15:09.76
  6. Ian Rainey, Michigan, 15:09.78
  7. Nathan Mueller, Wisconsin, 15:14.60
  8. Sean Maloney, Wisconsin, 15:15.96

200 Back

Tristan Sanders won a tightly contested 200 back final. The sophomore went 1:41.81 to win ahead of Indiana’s Bob Glover at 1:41.87 and Wisconsin’s Austin Byrd tied with Ohio State’s Thomas Trace at 1:42.09. The top five were all within a second of each other at the finish. Ohio State climbed back into second after the race and Wisconsin was in fourth.

  1. Tristan Sanders, Michigan, 1:41.81
  2. Bob Glover, Indiana, 1:41.87
  3. (t) Austin Byrd, Wisconsin, 1:42.09
  4. (t) Thomas Trace, Ohio State, 1:42.09
  5. Luke Papendick, Michigan, 1:42.56
  6. Andrew Appleby, Ohio State, 1:43.31
  7. Brett Pinfold, Wisconsin, 1:43.96
  8. Augustus Whiteman, Ohio State, 1:44.30

100 Free

With the second place team battle heating up, Indiana unleashed a monstrous 1-2-3 finish in the sprint event. The Hoosiers are not historically known to dominate in the 100 free, with the last title in the event coming from Sam Gasowski in 1996. But with the famed sprint coach Dennis Dale joining the coaching staff last year, the Hoosiers sprint program has really come alive. Blake Pieroni backed up his 200 free title with a win in the 100 at 42.27. Anze Tavcar and Ali Khalafalla completed the sweep at 42.58 and 42.73 respectively. Michigan sophomore Paul Powers actually tied Khalafalla for third.

  1. Blake Pieroni, Indiana, 42.27
  2. Anze Tavcar, Indiana, 42.58
  3. (t) Ali Khalafalla, Indiana, 42.73
  4. (t) Paul Powers, Michigan, 42.73
  5. Cannon Clifton, Wisconsin, 42.87
  6. Anders Nielsen, Michigan, 43.12
  7. Bowen Becker, Minnesota, 43.54
  8. Filip Bujoczek, Purdue, 43.66

200 Breast

We saw Dennis Dale’s sprint free expertise pay dividends for Indiana. Just one event later, the crowd saw Purdue’s Dan Ross’ breaststroke expertise pay off for sophomore Marat Amaltdinov. The Russian won the race with a 1:52.67 just ahead of Indiana’s Cody Taylor at 1:52.70. Conner McHugh of Minnesota was third at 1:54.08. Amaltdinov will not be competing at the NCAA Championships in March because he will put full focus on the Russian Olympic Trials in April. It wasn’t a bad way to go out as he won the race in his home pool for the Boilermaker’s first win of the weekend. This is the second straight win for Purdue in the 200 breast after Lyam Dias won the event last year.

  1. Marat Amaltdinov, Purdue, 1:52.67
  2. Cody Taylor, Indiana, 1:52.70
  3. Conner McHugh, Minnesota, 1:54.08
  4. Tanner Kurz, Indiana, 1:54.19
  5. DJ MacDonald, Ohio State, 1:54.75
  6. Ian Finnerty, Indiana, 1:54.99
  7. Jakub Maly, Minnesota, 1:56.31
  8. Jacob Mandli, Wisconsin, 1:56.70

200 Fly

Dylan Bosch did something in the 200 fly that no one in the Big Ten has ever done before. Mark Spitz, Tom Malchow, Davis Tarwater and Dan Madwed had all won three Big Ten titles in the 200 fly, but no one had ever won four. Bosch cruised through the final on Saturday night with a 1:40.86 to become the first man ever in the Big Ten to win the 200 fly four years in a row. Teammate Evan White was second at 1:42.36 and Vinicius Lanza of Indiana was third at 1:42.38. Michigan has now won 12 of the last 13 Big Ten titles in the 200 fly.

  1. Dylan Bosch, Michigan, 1:40.86
  2. Evan White, Michigan, 1:42.36
  3. Vinicius Lanza, Indiana, 1:42.38
  4. Ching Lim, Ohio State, 1:43.55
  5. Max Irwin, Indiana, 1:43.71
  6. Peter Brumm, Michigan, 1:45.22
  7. Harrison Tran, Wisconsin, 1:46.05
  8. Daniel Conway, Purdue, 1:46.59

Platform Diving

Colin Zheng won his second event of the weekend with a win in the platform diving event for Ohio State. Zheng finished ahead of three Minnesota Golden Gophers. The Minnesota diving program has seen tremendous improvements over the years thanks to legendary coach Wenbo Chen. Minnesota picked up enough points in diving to solidify fourth place ahead of Wisconsin.

  1. Colin Zheng, Ohio State, 498.95
  2. Manny Pollard, Minnesota, 416.00
  3. Dylan Zoe, Minnesota, 391.20
  4. Matt Barnard, Minnesota, 387.15
  5. Stephen Romanik, Ohio State, 365.70
  6. Addison Boschult, Iowa, 350.45
  7. Joey Cifelli, Purdue, 311.20
  8. Alan Leblang, Minnesota, 301.15

400 Free Relay

Indiana won its first 400 free relay title since 1991 at the Big Ten meet tonight with a 2:50.51. Michigan was second at 2:51.43 and Ohio State was third at 2:52.03. Tavcar (42.83), Khalafalla (42.66), Finnerty (43.38) and Pieroni (41.64) also clinched second place as a team with that win. They were only 2.5 points ahead of Ohio State going into that event.

  1. Indiana, 2:50.51
  2. Michigan, 2:51.43
  3. Ohio State, 2:52.03
  4. Wisconsin, 2:52.69
  5. Minnesota, 2:53.32
  6. Purdue, 2:56.01
  7. Northwestern, 2:56.29
  8. Iowa, 2:56.46

Team Scores

Michigan claimed its 6th straight conference title and 40th overall with 1475.5 points ahead of Indiana with 1306 and Ohio State with 1294.5. Michigan also swept the men’s and women’s conference titles for the first time since 1997. The Wolverines are now the toast of the town in the conference and will remain that way until someone dethrones them. Michigan will now try to improve on its 3rd place NCAA performance from last year.

  1. Michigan, 1475.5
  2. Indiana, 1306
  3. Ohio State, 1294.5
  4. Minnesota, 919
  5. Wisconsin, 832.5
  6. Purdue, 725
  7. Iowa, 551
  8. Northwestern, 462
  9. Penn State, 357.5
  10. Michigan State, 230

Dylan Bosch won swimmer of the meet, Colin Zheng won diver of the meet and Ian Finnerty won freshman of the championships.

2016 Big Ten Conference Men’s Championships Day 4 Finals – Results

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Matt Coward
Matt Coward
8 years ago

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