Indiana men’s swimming and diving concluded its season at the NCAA men’s swimming and diving championships, finishing in third place with 351 points. The championships, which were hosted by Georgia Tech University, took place Wednesday through Saturday at McAuley Aquatic Center in Atlanta.
The championships featured 21 total events over four days.
Competition commenced Wednesday with the 1,650-yard freestyle. Indiana senior Zalán Sárkány placed second, finishing with a program and conference record time of 14:12.20. However, the effort was not enough for gold, as Florida freshman Ahmed Jaouadi earned first place by setting an NCAA record time of 14:10.03.
Sárkány’s 1,000-yard split time of 8:33.10 was an NCAA record. His performance in the opening event earned the Hoosiers 17 team points, and a sixth-place finish from sophomore Luke Whitlock added 13 more, for 30 total team points to open the meet.
The 200-yard medley relay and the 800-yard freestyle relay also occurred Wednesday, with Indiana squads taking fourth and sixth place, respectively, and earning a total of 56 team points. Indiana’s fourth place finish in the 200-yard medley relay was fronted by junior Mikkel Lee, whose time of 18.26 was the team’s fastest of the event.
Indiana ended day one of the championships with 86 total points, knotted with the University of Florida for first place.
Thursday was the first full day of events, with five preliminary races and six finals. Two Hoosiers swam well enough in the morning preliminaries to qualify for a final race: freshman Josh Bey in the 400-yard individual medley and sophomore Alexei Avakov in the 100-yard breaststroke. Avakov’s time of 50.89 seconds was a personal best.
Bey and Avakov both earned first-team All American honors with top-10 finishes.
In the finals, Bey finished seventh with a time of 3:37.23, awarding Indiana 12 points, and Avakov finished sixth with another personal best time of 50.58, adding 13 more points.
Indiana’s time of 1:15.32 in the 200-yard freestyle relay Thursday earned a 12th-place title for 10 team points.
With five individual Hoosiers and the relay scoring points, Indiana ended day two in fourth place with a total of 132.5 points.
Six more events were slated for Friday, including the meet’s first diving event. After four preliminary races, five Hoosiers qualified for their respective finals. Senior Owen McDonald finished third in the 100-yard backstroke preliminary with a personal best time of 43.98.
Two different races featured two Hoosiers in the top eight. First, Bey and junior Toby Barnett both qualified for the 200-yard breaststroke final, followed by Sárkány and junior Aaron Shackell cracking the top eight of the 500-yard freestyle preliminary. Shackell’s time of 4:11.01 was a personal best.
No Hoosier qualified for the final of the 50-yard freestyle or 3-meter diving. McDonald, Bey, Barnett, Sárkány and Shackell were all honored as first-team All Americans with their finals qualifications.
McDonald finished the 100-yard backstroke final in fifth place for 13.5 points while Barnett finished sixth in the 200-yard breaststroke final for 13 points. Sárkány and Shackell finished fourth and seventh in the 500-yard freestyle final for 15 and 12 points, respectively.
Bey earned 17 points and Indiana’s second silver medal of the championships with a second-place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke final. Bey’s time of 1:48.79 was .18 seconds slower than University of California, Berkeley, sophomore Yamato Okadome, who took gold.
Sárkány swam a Big Ten and program record 4:07.95 in the final of the 500-yard freestyle, placing fourth.
In the 400-yard medley relay, Indiana placed fifth, finishing in 2:59.96, adding 28 points to the team’s running tally.
Following Friday’s events, Indiana rose to third place with a total score of 254, 77 points behind Florida and 86.5 points behind the University of Texas at Austin.
Three Hoosiers qualified for the final of the 200-yard individual medley Saturday: McDonald, who was the top qualifier, Bey and freshman Nolan Cakir. Bey and Cakir both swam personal bests in the preliminary race.
Additionally, sophomore Raekwon Noel and senior Kai van Westering found their way into the top eight of the 200-yard butterfly and the 200-yard backstroke, respectively. Indiana sent no swimmers or divers to the final of the 100-yard freestyle or platform diving.
McDonald, Bey, Cakir, Noel and van Westering joined the list of Indiana’s first-team All-Americans with their preliminary race results.
McDonald began Indiana’s final afternoon in Atlanta with a second-place finish in the 200-yard individual medley, earning the Hoosiers’ third silver medal. With a time of 1:38.57, McDonald was .09 seconds behind University of Virginia freshman Maximus Williamson.
Bey and Cakir, the two other Hoosiers who qualified for the final, finished seventh and eighth, respectively. Indiana earned a total of 40 points in the 200-yard individual medley.
Noel finished sixth in the 200-yard butterfly for 13 points. Van Westering finished fourth in the 200-yard backstroke for 15 points. Indiana finished seventh in the 400-yard freestyle relay, resulting in 24 points for the team, finalizing the Hoosiers’ 351 total points.
Indiana finished the day in third place, behind Florida and Texas, its fifth consecutive top-five finish and second straight third-place title.
