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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

sports

Swimming and diving prepare for Big Tens

CAROUSELspIUswimming

The IU men’s swimming and diving team will compete for its first Big Ten title since 2006 at the Big Ten Championships today in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Last season, the Hoosiers finished second at Big Tens. They have finished in the top five for 11 consecutive years.

Entering this week at No. 6, the Hoosiers look for its first title in seven years and 25th overall team title.

“The lights are on. It’s the big show,” junior Yianni Thermos said. “It’s where some of the fastest swimmers come together to really hash it out. Just the energy level at Big Tens is indescribable. It’s different than any other meet in the country.”

IU’s No. 6 ranking is the highest yet this year. The team started the season 0-4 but hasn’t dropped a dual meet since Oct. 25, when it lost to then-No. 1 Michigan.

When competition begins tonight, there will be no question who’s the team to beat.

“Michigan,” junior Mike Hurley said. “Michigan has always been the toughest competition. They’re the reigning NCAA champions, and we’re going to be facing off head to head against them.”

In addition to winning the national championship last season, the Wolverines have won the past three Big Ten titles.

They enter tonight at No. 2 in the CSCAA rankings.

“They are consistently in the top 10,” Thermos said. “We’re finally back in the top 10 since the Mark Spitz era.”

The Hoosiers will face off against four other top-25 teams aside from Michigan.
Twenty swimmers will compete. IU Coach Ray Looze said the key will be getting contributions from every swimmer.

“We’re going to need depth,” he said. “I’m interested to see what our last five or six guys do. If our last six guys score, we’ve had the best meet we can have. If somebody beats us, more power to them.”

Senior Cody Miller will try to become the first swimmer in Big Ten history to win four consecutive titles in the 100-yard breaststroke. Only 10 other swimmers in history have won an event four years in a row.

In the 100-yard backstroke, senior James Wells will compete for a third-straight Big Ten title.

Freshmen Anze Tavcar and Max Irwin earned the top times for IU this season in the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle, and the 100-yard butterfly, respectively.

Looze said despite having more depth than last year’s Big Tens, it’s all about how his young swimmers will react in a high-pressure situation.

“We’re deeper than we were last year, but we still have freshmen and guys that have never scored,” he said. “Until they get put under the spotlight, that pressure-packed situation, you don’t know how they’re going to react.”

In the diving well, senior Darian Schmidt will try to repeat as the 1-meter springboard champion. He was the 3-meter champion in 2012.

Schmidt was named the 2013 Big Ten Diver of the Year and Big Ten Diver of the Championships.

Of the eight divers who will compete this week, five are seniors.

IU Diving Coach Drew Johansen said having veteran experience not only helps the seniors prepare individually, but it has an affect on the underclassmen as well.

“With such a veteran team, they know what’s coming,” he said. “They’re preparing themselves mentally as their physical taper is happening.

“Then, with the other four underclassmen, it’s a nice balance. You have that youthful exuberance ready to just charge in there and take them all on. Then you have the wise veteran that knows how to pace themselves and be ready for the moment.”

Since the end of the regular season, all the swimmers and divers have been resting both physically and mentally.

Hurley said the mental aspect will be crucial to bringing a Big Ten title back to IU.
Focus is essential to success, he said.

“When you lift your head up, that’s when you lose things,” he said. “If you just stick to your plan and go out there and execute it without any thought about it, that’s when championships are won.”

@GracePalmieri

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