IU earns best Big Ten finish since 1997

The IU men's swimming and diving team (8-1, 5-1 Big Ten) placed third overall with a score of 455 points at the Big Ten Championships over the weekend in Ann Arbor, Mich. The team improved from a seventh place finish last year and had their best placing since the 1997 Big Tens. \n"It got better every session just like we hoped," coach Ray Looze said. "We scored this meet out ahead of time and that had us at 375 points. We almost beat that by 80 points. We didn't leave any doubt because we did better and some teams didn't do quite so well. I'm very proud of how everybody operated. The divers and the swimmers, everybody performed well under pressure. We had some newcomers step up. This gets us pointed in the right direction." \nBut, Looze also said he was not overly excited with the third place finish. He said that with the talent currently on the team it is a great accomplishment, but he wants to be able to take over Michigan and Minnesota. Those teams placed first and second at the Big Tens with scores of 727 and 689. \n"Indiana belongs on top and Michigan and Minnesota had better enjoy their time," Looze said. "This is going to help recruiting and it's already going well." \nDuring the preliminaries of the 200-yard butterfly, sophomore Murph Halasz broke his own school record in a time of 1:45.90 and qualified for the NCAA Championships. Halasz finished fourth in the finals of the event. \nSophomore Richard Bryant finished 13th in the 1000-yard freestyle event with a career-best time of 15:29.48. That was nearly seven seconds faster than his seed time. \nIn the finals of the 200-yard backstroke, junior Matt Leach finished sixth in a time of 1:46.79. It was a career-best in the event and it places him in fourth place on IU's all-time top-10 list. \nJunior sprinter Claes Andersson won the consolation finals of the 100-yard freestyle, placing ninth overall with a time of 45.11. Senior captain David Schulze finished sixth in the 200-yard breaststroke in a time of 2:00.53. The sprinting contingent of juniors Mike Payne and Andersson and sophomores Jonathan Burgess and David Winck placed seventh in 400-yard freestyle relay with a time of 3:01.53 to finish out the weekend of events. \nThe diving team made perhaps the biggest splash of the weekend with junior All-American Marc Carlton taking home the honor of Big Ten Diver-of-the-Year and coach Jeff Huber being named as the Big Ten Diving Coach-of-the-Year. Carlton was also named the co-Diver-of-the-Championships along with Michigan junior All-American Jason Coben. Carlton placed first on the one-meter, second on the platform, and fifth on the three-meter. \n"It feels great (to be named Big Ten Diver-of-the-Year)," Carlton said. "I did well, but I could do better. I am really panning for the NCAA Championships to give my best performances. I'm most happy that the whole team got third place and Jeff was named the Coach-of-the-Year. I feel like that's a victory in itself." \nOn platform, senior Adam Hazes finished third, freshman Brian Mariano placed fifth, sophomore Brian Metzler was seventh, junior Alex Burns was 14th, and sophomore Ryan Fagan placed 15th. Mariano was the only freshman at the Big Tens to reach the finals in all three events. \n"During the championships, I though all six divers stepped it up in most cases on the weekend," Huber said. "We had some heartbreakers a little bit. To score 180 points in three events is outstanding. They did a great job but I told them if we were clicking on all six cylinders, all six guys, I think we could have scored even more. " \nThe last chance for the swimmers to qualify for the NCAA Championships will be on Saturday, March 8 at 4 p.m. when the Hoosiers host the Indiana Open at the Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center. All six divers qualified for the NCAA Zones which will take place in Oxford, Ohio, March 13-15. The NCAA swimming and diving championships will be held in Austin, Texas, March 27-29.