Despite Indiana's loss during Saturday's swimming and diving meet to No. 4 Michigan 166-130, junior diver Zac Nees earned Big Ten Diver of the Week honors, and freshman swimmer Steve Schmuhl earned IU's first ever Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors in the losing effort.
During the diving portion of the competition, Nees continued his high level of performance he has had throughout the season, as he won the 3-meter dive event with a score of 384.00, and later finished third in the 1-meter dive only behind teammates Mick Dell'Orco and Darian Schmidt. For Nees, it was his fourth win on an already impressive season, as he continues to prepare for the Big Ten Championships, where he finished runner-up in last season's 1-meter dive competition. It is also Nees' second Big Ten Diver of the Week award of the season (Nov. 22), where during the double dual-meet against Penn State and Virginia, he swept both the 1- and 3-meter diving competitions.
Though IU struggled to pull together wins in the swimming portion of Saturday's meet, Schmuhl's performance was good enough for him to be awarded the third Big Ten Freshman of the Week ever. Schmuhl accounted for two wins during Saturday's meet, including one in the 200-yard backstroke in a time of 1:47.17, where he beat his closest competition by over a two second margin. Schmuhl's other win came in the 200-yard medley relay, where he and junior Daniel Kanorr and sophomores James Wells and Cody Miller combined for a 1:29.32 finish, good enough for an NCAA B Cut time. Schmuhl also finished runner-up in both the 100- and 200-yard butterfly races, the highest IU finisher in each competition.
The Hoosiers will return to the pool on Jan. 21, when they will host Purdue at the Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center in Bloomington.
