IU men swim and dive to 2nd

On the last day of the Big Ten Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships, the Hoosiers earned two Big Ten titles, five school records and coach of the year honors.

Despite another disqualification in the 400-yard individual medley relay due to early exchanges by two swimmers, the Hoosiers finished the championships in second place with 664 points, ahead of Ohio State (470 points) and behind Michigan (899 points).

“Two guys jumped and that’s inexcusable and I take full responsibility for that,” IU Coach Ray Looze said. “Coaches need to have their teams better prepared.”

“We don’t need to jump relay starts and we are going to fix it,” he said.

Junior Cody Miller made his mark at the championships after collecting three individual titles, two Big Ten Conference records and the Swimmer of the Championships award. In the 200-yard breaststroke, Miller earned the second-fastest time in NCAA history and a new school record as he touched the wall in 1:51.03. With this victory, Miller claimed his third straight Big Ten title in the event.

The Indiana University diving program brought home several accolades Saturday night as junior diver Darian Schmidt shared Diver of the Championships honors with Ohio State’s Shane Miszkiel and Dr. Jeff Huber was named Diving Coach of the Year for the ninth time on the men’s side.

Making his name as the second Hoosier to break the 15-minute mark in the 1,650-yard freestyle, Jim Barbiere finished in sixth place with a school-record time of 14:56.79.

Eric Ress just nearly missed a victory in the 200-yard backstroke and placed second with a time of 1:40.22, earning an automatic cut for the NCAA Championships and the third-fastest time in school history.

After setting a new school record in the 100-yard freestyle with his time of 43.21, Daniel Kanorr placed fifth in the finals.

Setting another school record for the Hoosiers in the 200-yard butterfly with his time of 1:43.53, Stephen Schmuhl beat Todd Patrick’s previous record by 2/10ths of a second. Schmuhl ended up finishing second in the finals with a time of 1:43.55.

For the divers, Conor Murphy led the platform event from start to finish and earned a victory with his school-record score of 495.55. From scoring 91.20 points on his first dive to closing the meet with a dive that earned five perfect tens, Murphy came out on top.

“He came in as number one and handled the pressure and came out with a school record,” IU Coach Dr. Jeff Huber said. “Hopefully we’ll keep that going into the NCAAs.”

Finishing behind Murphy in second was senior Casey Johnson, who completed his Big Ten career with a career-best 441.50 points.

“We’ve done a lot of great swimming and diving this past week and I’m super proud of the guys and we look forward to NCAAs next and hopefully taking a team that can make a statement there,” Looze said.

The Hoosiers look forward to the NCAA Championships on March 28-30 in Indianapolis, Ind. The IU divers will compete at the NCAA Zone Diving Championships March 14-16 in West Lafayette.