Hoosiers look to climb standings at Big Tens

The Big Ten championships continue today and tomorrow, as the Hoosiers try to rise up the leader board and forge a top finish. The fifth place Hoosiers trail first place Minnesota by 75 points with a 122 score. \nToday's events are book ended by a pair of relays—the 200 yard medley relay to begin competition and the 800-yard freestyle relay to finish the day off. The Hoosiers have not competed in the 800-yard freestyle relay since last November, while the squad of sophomore backstroker Matt Leach, junior breaststroker David Schulze, freshman butterflier Murph Halasz and sophomore freestyler Claes Andersson established a season best time in the 200-yard medley relay in January. \nLeach, Schulze and Halasz will also swim the 100-yard varieties of their strokes on Saturday as the 100-yard backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly events will all also be raced. Schulze has led the team all year in the breaststroke events and Kirchner said he expects that to continue today. \n"I hope he has and I expect him to have the best meet of his career," he said.\nAlso held today are the 400-yard individual medley and the 200-yard freestyle. The 400-yard IM gives season-best time holder and lone senior Heath Montgomery the best opportunity to go out on top—as a Big Ten champion. \n"This is my last chance to do something special," Montgomery said. "I'm going to give it all I've got in all of my events and hope for the best."\nSaturday's lineup features the 1650-freestyle to open the event, the third individual event for freshman Richard Bryant, who raced the 500-yard freestyle on Thursday. \n"The 1650, that could be his great race," Kirchner said. "But he's got to get clicked in and stay focused."\nThe day will continue with the 200-yard backstroke and the 100-yard freestyle, where the same corps of sprint freestylers who competed in the 50-yard event will take the pool again. \nThen, the Hoosiers will race two of their strongest events: the 200-yard breaststroke and the 200-yard butterfly. Schulze holds a season best, NCAA qualifying time in the 200-yard breaststroke while Halasz hasn't lost a 200-yard butterfly race in 9 trials and is 11 hundredths of a second off of the school record held by Olympian Mark Spitz. \nThe 400-yard freestyle relay will close out the swimming events. \nOn the diving side, the squad will compete in the 3-meter event today and the platform (10-meter) event on Saturday. Following sophomore Marc Carlton's fifth place finish and junior Adam Hazes eighth place finish in the one-meter event yesterday, the Hoosiers will turn their attention today to what Huber considers their strongest event, the three meter. \n"I think it's a great event for us," Huber said. "I'm very confident. We just need to get up and do the things we need to do and do them in competition. Marc has to be considered one of the favorites to be a Big Ten champion off of three meter."\nOff of the platform, Hazes will not compete due to a lingering injury in the cartilage in his wrist and Burns doesn't have a complete list in the event. But, Huber said Carlton should have a strong performance. \n"Marc Carlton, I think, is the best diver in the Big Ten up there," Huber said. "That remains to be seen, but he's got all the right dives up there"