For Indiana sophomore diver Emad Abdelatif, Thursday's 1-meter dive preliminaries would be the first time he hit the pool all season, after sitting out the regular season due to injury.
Three hours after preliminaries started at Day 2 of the men's swimming and diving Big Ten Championships, Abdelatif now stands only six dives away from his first career Big Ten title, after posting a career-high 333.90 (fifth place) in preliminaries. He joins the six other Hoosiers who also advanced to the finals of their respective events on Thursday.
IU started off the day with a fifth place finish by junior Jim Barbiere in the 500-yard freestyle, as the junior finished in a time of 4:19.87. Seniors Tyler Shedron and Andrew Taylor followed in tenth and fifteenth, and will both compete in the consolation finals come tonight.
The 200-yard Individual Medley followed, with sophomore Cody Miller taking fourth place in prelims with a time of 1:46.12. Though Miller was the only Hoosier top eight qualifier, junior Sam Trahin finished in thirteenth place with a time of 1:47.42, and will be a part of the consolation heat tonight.
In the final swimming event of the afternoon session, junior Daniel Kanorr sealed a spot in tonight's 50-yard freestyle finals after posting a career-best time of 19.89 in the prelims. Despite Kanorr's feat, he was the only IU swimmer to finish in the Top 24 for the entire event, meaning he will be the only swimmer from IU who can earn points during tonight's finals.
Finally, in addition to Abdelatif's feat in the 1-meter dive, IU clinched three other spots in the finals, as junior Zac Nees led the way in qualifications with a score of 395.90. Junior Mick Dell'Orco and sophomore Darian Schmidt followed in second and third place, as each earned scores of 382.20 and 365.40, respectively. The Hoosiers also clinched four spots in the consolation round, as junior Casey Johnson, freshman Connor Brisson, sophomore Bryce Odgen and redshirt freshman George Andrews finished 13-14-15-16 respectively.
The Hoosiers will return to the pool at 7:30 p.m. EST tonight, as the third place team tries to climb out of a 20-point deficit against leading Michigan.
