Indiana men’s swim and dive came out on top at the Big Ten Championships, capturing its fifth straight Big Ten Title this weekend in Madison, Wisconsin.
The Hoosiers finished the meet with 1,544.5 points over the four-day contest featuring eight other schools. Michigan placed second behind Indiana with 1,208 points.
On the first day, Michigan captured first place and upset the Hoosiers on the 200-yard medley relay. The Wolverines finished with a 1:21.99 time and the Hoosiers had a 1:22.09 finish.
Indiana placed third in the 800-yard freestyle relay with a time of 6:08.90. Indiana was led by junior Dylan Smiley, junior Aaron Shackell, senior Owen McDonald, and sophomore Raekwon Noel. Ohio State placed first, producing a meet record of 6:06.64, with Wisconsin rounding out the top three. Michigan led the pack with 116 points, with Ohio State and Indiana following, having 114 and 110 points, respectively, on day one.
Freshman Josh Bey won the conference title and captured the Big Ten record in the 400-yard individual medley with a 3:34.90 finish. The previous record was set in 2025 by Ohio State’s Tristan Jankovics, with a 3:34.98 time. To finish off the night, Indiana won the title in the 200-meter freestyle relay with a 1:15.61 time, while Michigan came in second with a 1:15.71 time.
After day two, Indiana had the lead with 535 points, with Michigan and Ohio State trailing behind, holding 491 and 414.5 points, respectively.
On day three, the Hoosiers swept both the 500-yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke, while they captured 11 total medals. Indiana had three of the top eight finishers in the 100-yard backstroke finals, 200-yard breaststroke finals and the 500-yard freestyle finals. These top finishes helped Indiana gain a significant 250.5-point lead over second place Michigan. The Hoosiers had 1,061.5 points, while the Wolverines had 811 points.
Day four couldn’t have gone much better for Indiana. Indiana held the top seed in every swim event Saturday. Leading the way was senior Owen McDonald, who won his second straight 200 individual medley championship, in a close finish with a 1:40.11 time. Second place finisher Michigan’s Colin Geer came in at 1:40.15.
In the 100-meter freestyle, junior Dylan Smiley won his first individual Big Ten championship, with a time of 41.81 seconds. In the 1,650-meter freestyle, Indiana swept the podium, with senior Zalán Sárkány finishing first, sophomore Luke Whitlock finishing second and freshman Luke Ellis finishing third. Sárkány’s finish of 14:25.40 was a meet record.
In the platform diving final, senior Maxwell Weinrich finished third with a 442.55 final score, while sophomore Joshua Sollenberger finished 16th with a final score of 245.15.
Indiana has two last chance meets on March 6 and March 7, with the Zone C Diving Championships to follow, from March 9-11. These last chance meets are a final chance for swimmers and divers to qualify for the NCAA Championships. Depending on qualifications in these meets, only select swimmers and divers will move on to the NCAA Championships in Atlanta. Those qualified for Indiana include Mikkel Lee, Zalán Sárkány, Owen McDonald, Josh Bey and others.
