Men's team finishes 7th, its worst finish since 1954

The Hoosiers struggled on the last two days of the Big Ten Championships, falling from fifth after the first day to a seventh place finish when the final scores were tallied. Reigning Big Ten champion Minnesota continued its conference domination, as the Golden Gophers outdueled Michigan to defend their title. Minnesota finished with 711.5 points, and the Wolverines had 636.5.\n"Our performance was like a roller coaster," IU coach Kris Kirchner said. "We had some events that we performed really well in with career and lifetime bests and other events that didn't go according to our plans. It's disappointing.\n"Everybody out there wants to go faster and place higher. But, all in all, we knew that Minnesota and Michigan were good teams coming in, and to compete with them, you've got to have the whole package."\nThe Hoosiers kicked off the Friday session with a fourth-place finish in the 200-medley relay. The squad of sophomore backstroker Matt Leach, junior breaststroker David Schulze, freshman butterflier Murph Halasz and sophomore freestyler Claes Andersson swam to a 1:28.15 finish, only five hundredths of a second better than fifth-place finishing Purdue. \nSchulze, Leach and Halasz also competed in the 100-yard varieties of the breaststroke, backstroke and butterfly events respectively Friday. Schulze made the championship finals by breaking a school breaststroke record during prelims. He then broke his own record in the finals, swimming to a 54.66, fourth-place finish. \n"He's come a long way," Kirchner said of Schulze's progress. "He's never been in the Big Ten finals until this year, and he's never been in the NCAAs. He'll make the NCAAs and hopefully go faster there."\nLeach was victorious in the consolatory finals of the 100-yard backstroke while Halasz finished fourth in the consolatory finals of the 100-yard butterfly. \nIU's lone senior, Heath Montgomery, competed in the 400-yard individual medley consolation finals Friday. He swam a season-best 3:56.98 but finished next to last in the event.\n"I'd hoped to go out on a better note, but I can't complain," Montgomery said. "I had two of the three best times of my life in my finals, so I can't complain too much."\nOn the diving side of the meet, junior Adam Hazes placed fourth and sophomore Marc Carlton placed seventh off of the 3-meter boards Friday.