Swimming and Diving Big Ten Championships Update

Before the 400-yard medley relay, the IU men’s swimming and diving team was only 39 points away from Big Ten Championship leader Michigan.

After the event, IU sits in second-place overall with 237 points while Michigan is in first with 316 points. The Big Ten officials claim that junior Cody Miller did a double butterfly kick during the breaststroke leg of the event, causing the team’s disqualification.

Not only did IU place second in the 400-yard medley relay, but they also had beaten the school record. However, the disqualification struck that down.

“I disagree but I have a lot of respect for the officials here,” IU Coach Ray Looze said about the call.

Despite the setbacks, the Hoosiers had a successful meet starting with Miller’s victory in the 200-yard individual medley. Miller touched the wall in 1:41.85, earning a Big Ten meet record and a school record.

Sophomore Stephen Schmuhl finished fourth with 1:43.65, followed by Eric Ress in fifth with 1:43.92 and Donald Hurley placed seventh with a time of 1:45.31.

In the 1-meter diving event, Darian Schmidt prevailed with his score of 432.15, 12.7 points better than his preliminary score of 419.45.

“That was one of my goals for this year and I got to do it,” Schmidt said. “It feels really good. Hopefully I can raise the bar again tomorrow.”

Mick Dell’Orco placed fifth with 338.95 points, followed by Casey Johnson in sixth (337.50), Conor Murphy in seventh (333.25) and Bryce Ogden in eighth (332.25).

In the 500-yard freestyle, redshirt senior James Barbiere placed fifth for the Hoosiers with a time of 4:16.84.

The men continue competition Friday with prelims at 11 a.m. and finals at 6:30 p.m at the Councilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center.

“We got dealt a little bit of adversity there at the end and it’s just something that we will have to overcome,” Looze said. “That’s part of life and there is a lot of struggle in life and this is just going to be something that we’ll bounce back from, no doubt in my mind.”