Hoosiers Big Ten champs once again

For the first time since 1985, members of the IU men's swimming and diving team can call themselves Big Ten Champions. \nThe No. 11 Hoosiers captured the elusive title Saturday by blowing past last year's Big Ten champion Minnesota, 760.5-652. The Hoosiers came up just short in last year's championships, falling to Minnesota by only three points.\nThe Big Ten title is the 24th in the storied tradition of IU swimming and diving, a program that at one point won 20 consecutive titles.\nThe victory also delivers the promise of fourth-year IU coach Ray Looze, who guaranteed IU's return to elite status. \n"You can't put it in words," said senior Kevin Swander. "Coach (Looze) promised a title four years ago when he came here and it's beyond belief. It's a great feeling to do it back home."\nThe Hoosiers entered the final day of the competition with a 90-point lead, due in large part to the Hoosiers' scoring three conference titles and setting three school records on their second day of the Big Ten Championships.\nSenior Sergiy Fesenko started off the final day by placing second in the 1,650-yard freesyle with a time of 15:03.73. His 1,000-yard freestyle split time of 8:57.80 not only eclipsed the school record, but also became just the second instance in which a swimmer swam the 1,000-yard freestyle in IU history. \nSwander's third-place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:55.25 broke his own school record and designated him the first IU breaststroker to top the 1:56 standard in the event.\nThe Hoosiers followed up Swander's performance with another record-breaking run. Freshman Nick Walkotten placed third in the 100-yard butterfly with an NCAA automatic time of 1:44.32, breaking the IU record of 1:44.81 set at last year's Big Ten Championships by Murph Halasz.\n"It feels good," Walkotten said of his record-breaking accomplishment. "I put a lot of work in and it feels good to follow in (Halasz') footsteps."\nJunior Brian Mariano perhaps provided the most exciting performance of the evening, coming from behind to win the 10-meter platform-diving event. Mariano struggled in his third and fourth dives, failing to reach 40 points on either dive. He entered his final dive trailing by 80 points to Purdue's Josh Karshen, but he saved his best for last. Performing backward 2.5 somersaults with 1.5 twists, Mariano posted an 86.70, the highest total of the meet in the event. His score overall was 391.85, the sixth-best six-dive platform performance in school history and a personal best. \n"I tried not to peek at the score," Mariano said of his approach to his final dive. "I just listened to what Coach Huber said and told myself to go for it all. It was a huge adrenaline rush when I came out of the water."\nMariano's feat, along with sophomore Justin Montrie's fifth-place finish, senior Jesse Rappaport and sophomore Taylor Roberts' sixth and eighth-place performances respectively -- as well as senior Ryan Fagan's ninth-place and sophomore David Legler 13th-place finish -- all but clinched the Big Ten title for the Hoosiers, ending a 21-year drought without a championship\n"We've worked hard for this," said Looze. "This is a rarity. We'll remember this for the rest of our lives"