IU loses Big Ten title

With several teams ranked ahead of the No. 21 Hoosiers at the Big Ten championships this past weekend, IU coach Ray Looze knew it would be nearly impossible to repeat as Big Ten champions.\nWhile the team did not defend its title, the Hoosiers’ third-place finish featured five individual event titles, four school records and two Big Ten meet records. For Looze, the result was still a success.\n“We fought real hard the whole weekend and with how the meet started it was nice to see the ladies finish up third,” he said in a statement.\nMinnesota (660.5 points) and Michigan (609) were the only teams to top IU. The Hoosiers finished one spot higher than No. 12 Penn State.\nSophomore Kate Zubkova swept the backstroke events, setting school and Big Ten meet records in the 100- and 200-yard backstroke, while sophomore Brittney Feldman won the 1-meter and 3-meter diving events to earn the Big Ten Diver of the Year and Diver of the Championship awards. \nZubkova topped the year-old old Big Ten meet record in the 100-backstroke by more than a second, lowering last year’s mark of 52.85 to 51.68. Her teammate, sophomore Presley Bard, finished second to make it a 1-2 IU finish. \n“It was just a phenomenal race on (Zubkova’s) part, raising her game to another level (Friday) evening from where she had been at,” Looze said in a statement. “Which is nice to see that she can go and do something like that. It is a sign of what she might be capable of in the future. I really couldn’t be more proud of both of them. It is always an honor to get a 1-2 at a meet like this, and I would love to see that at NCAA’s.”\nOn Saturday, Zubkova outdistanced her competition by more than two seconds to finish at 1:53.62 in the 200-backstroke, breaking a 13-year-old Big Ten meet record.\nFeldman dominated her two diving events, a near replication of IU senior Christina Loukas’ historic performance last year. Loukas, who redshirted this season to train for the Beijing Olympics, swept the 1-meter, 3-meter and platform diving events. This year, Feldman took the 1-meter event Thursday by posting a six-dive score of 320.80 and finished 15 points ahead of second place in the 3-meter event, posting a 439.55 score.\nSophomore Donna Smailis added another school record in the 200-yard individual medley, with a 1:59.69 in a Thursday morning preliminary. She became the first Hoosier to break the two-minute barrier in that event, surpassing former IU swimmer Kristen Bradley’s 2:01.04 in 2004. Smailis finished fifth in the finals.\n“(Smailis) has been the most focused of anybody in the program,” Looze said in a statement. “You really had to sense she was going to do something. She has such a bright future ahead of her and I am very proud of Donna today.”