Hoosiers place 9th at NCAA’s

The IU men’s swimming and diving program brought 14 swimmers to the 2013 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships this past weekend at the IU-Purdue University Indianapolis Natatorium and Sports Complex. Nine of those 14 swimmers scored points.

Posting their best finish since 1980, the Hoosiers scored 201 points to place ninth.
“I couldn’t have been happier with the swimmers and divers during this meet,” IU Coach Ray Looze said. “There was a lot of determination.”

After a disqualification in the breaststroke leg of the 400-yard individual medley relay at the 2013 Big Ten Championships, junior Cody Miller watched helplessly as another race and another phenomenal time was wiped off the scoreboard at the 2013 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships.

Miller hit the wall with a time of 52.02 in the 100-yard breaststroke but was called for an illegal kick.

In a preliminary time of 52.66, Miller made the championship final after tying for seventh place. Although Miller missed the mark in the event, Mike Hurley snagged a 22nd-place finish in 53.70 with Tanner Kurz following in 23rd (53.80) in his first individual event at the NCAA Championships.

“The officials said Cody (Miller) did a dolphin kick in the final,” Looze said. “It was great to see him respond by making the A final in the 200-yard breaststroke.”

Miller redeemed himself in the 200-yard breaststroke by placing fourth in an All-American honors time of 1:53.29. He beat his preliminary time of 1:53.29, which was .87 seconds faster than his preliminary time.

Setting a new school record for the Hoosiers, sophomore Steve Schmuhl came out of preliminaries with a time of 3:41.98. In the championship final of the event, Schmuhl swam to a fifth-place finish and earned All-American honors.

In the 200-yard butterfly, Schmuhl was able to pick up a 22nd-place finish with his time of 1:44.62.

Also setting a school record, senior Jim Barbiere beat his previous record of 14:56.79 by 2.71 seconds after he placed 12th in the 1,650-yard freestyle with a time of 14:54.08. The IU swimmer hadn’t started swimming the event until this year.

Junior Eric Ress earned fifth place for the Hoosiers in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 1:39.92. Second through fifth place spanned .62 seconds.

Not only did Ress compete in the 200-yard backstroke, but he also swam in the 200-yard individual medley and the 100-yard backstroke individually.

Earning All-American honors for his time of 45.31 in the 100-yard backstroke, Ress placed third for the Hoosiers and improved upon his preliminary time of 46.03 by .72 of a second. Ress was the second finisher for IU in the 200-yard individual medley after placing 19th with a time of 1:44.58, following  Miller’s third place finish.

Teammate junior James Wells hit the wall in 1:43.72, good for 30th place.
On the first day of competition, two school records were broken.

In the 50-yard freestyle, Daniel Kanorr swam to ninth place with a time of 19.42 in the A final.

In the platform competition, junior Conor Murphy scored 422.15 points and finished third. This is the best finish for the Hoosiers since Mark Lenzi placed second in 1990.

In the platform final, junior Emad Abdelatif ended the event in 19th with a score of 316.45 points followed by sophomore Danton Rogers in 20th with a score of 306.95 points.

An era of diving has ended.

This was the last NCAA Championships coached by IU Diving Coach Jeff Huber. In his last NCAA Championships trip, Huber had three divers finish in the top three in the men’s and women’s meets combined.

“It was amazing getting to work with Coach Huber for this time,” Schmidt said.
“A turning point in my career was last winter, when we had nationals at Tennessee, and I had a disastrous meet,” he said. “He walked me to the end of the pool and ripped me a new one in a harsh but good way.”

Representing IU in the relay events, a team of Wells, Miller, Schmuhl and Kanorr touched the wall in ninth place with a time of 3:08.40, a new school record in the 400-yard medley relay. In the 800-yard freestyle relay, Schmuhl, Barbiere, Matt Gerth and Ress combined to place 11th with a time of 6:23.31.

“We had three relays in the B final,” Looze said. “What we really need to work on is getting our relays in the A final.”