Men's Big Ten Championships Start Thursday

Feb. 25, 2008

THIS WEEK — The Hawkeye men’s swimming team will compete at the Big Ten Championships Thursday thru Saturday in Ann Arbor, MI. All events will be held in the Canham Natatorium on the University of Michigan campus. Adults can buy all session passes for $35 or single session tickets for $8. Children under 18, students and senior citizens can buy all session passes for $20 and single session tickets for $5. Tickets can be purchased through the University of Michigan ticket office at 866-296-MTIX. Live meet results can be viewed at www.mgoblue.com, as well as www.bigten.org.

HAWKEYES TO WATCH — Iowa diver Frank Van Dijkjuizen has earned Big Ten diver of the week honors three times this season as well as six first place finishes. Van Dijkhuizen also finished in fifth place in the three-meter at the Ohio State Invite. Freshman Conor Dwyer leads the Hawkeyes in the 50, 100, 200 and 500 freestyle (20.96; 45.66; 1:38.93; 4:31.81) and with ten first place finishes. Sophomore Wil Whaley has garnered seven victories and leads the team in the 100 and 200 backstroke and the 200 IM (50.74; 1:47.69; 1:55.50).

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS — Event prelims begin at 10 a.m. each day, with diving starting 30 minutes after swimming prelims conclude. Both swimming and diving finals begin at 6 p.m; times are CST. All swimming events will be in yards and all diving events will be in meters. Following is the schedule of events:

Thursday, Feb. 28
200 Free Relay*
500 Free
200 IM
50 Free
1-Meter Diving
400 Medley Relay*

Friday, Feb. 29
200 Medley Relay*
400 IM
100 Fly
200 Free
100 Breast
100 Back
3-Meter Diving
800 Free Relay*

Saturday, Mar. 1
1,650 Free*
200 Back
100 Free
200 Breast
200 Fly
Platform Diving
400 Free Relay*

* — finals only

STIFF COMPETITION — Seven of the 10 competing Big Ten teams are nationally ranked, including No. 4 Michigan, 8 Indiana, 9 Minnesota, 12 Purdue, 13 Ohio State, 16 Penn State, and 19 Northwestern.

2007 BIG TEN REVIEW — The Hawkeyes placed ninth at the 2007 Big Ten Championships, scoring 118 points in Columbus, OH. Minnesota won the team title with 612.5. Place winners for the Hawkeyes included Dragos Agache with a third place finish in the 100 breaststroke and a sixth place finish in the 200 breaststroke; both events gave Agache new school records. Michael Gilligan and Nate Keeling took eighth in platform diving and 13th in the 200 butterfly, respectively.

BIG TEN HISTORY — In the 96-year history of the Big Ten Men’s Swimming Championships, Iowa has crowned 100 event champions, which includes 73 swimmers, 19 relays and eight divers. The Hawkeyes have won three team titles (1936, 1981 and 1982). Michigan has won 32 team titles, Indiana 24, Ohio State 12, Northwestern 11, Minnesota nine, Illinois 3 and Chicago and Penn State one.

Big Ten Media Guide Supplement in PDF Format

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