Hoosiers in 1st place after day 1 of Big Tens

The No. 11 IU men's swimming and diving team broke four records en route to a first-place finish at the end of day one of the 2006 Big Ten Championships at the Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatics Center Thursday. \nThe Hoosiers finished day one with a score of 187.5, while the next closest team was Minnesota with 177 points.\n"I'm proud of this team," said IU coach Ray Looze. "This is just the beginning, but it is a nice start. We just need to take this a session at a time and come back (Friday) and do a good job." \nIn the 500-yard freestyle, senior Sergiy Fesenko finished second in the event with a time of 4:16.79. Fesenko's second-place finish broke a school record and his personal best time in the event. After Fesenko's performance, the Hoosiers remained in fourth with 57 points. \nIn the following event, the 200-yard individual medley, senior Kevin Swander's personal best time of 1:46.68 garnered a fourth-place finish and a school record in the event. Swander's feat pushed the Hoosiers into third-place with 86 points.\nFollowing a drop to third place, the Hoosier diving team boosted IU's hopes by placing third, fifth and sixth in the one-meter diving event. Senior Ryan Fagan took third with a personal best score of 345.70. Junior Brian Mariano finished in fifth place with 332.85 points, followed by sophomore Taylor Roberts, who posted the sixth-place finish with 323.85 as the Hoosiers took over first place with a score of 153.5.\n"They did great," said IU diving coach Dr. Jeff Huber. "We knew it would be a crapshoot and I think it was our best performance on the one-meter. We just need to use this as a catalyst for (Friday)."\nThe Hoosiers ended the day on a high note as IU placed second in the 400-yard medley relay with a school-record time of 3:08.48. The medley quartet consisted of sophomore Ben Hesen, freshman Nick Walkotten, Swander and Patrick. Additionally, Hesen's 100-yard backstroke time of 46.44 broke his school record. The record-breaking performance extended the Hoosier lead by 10 points as the Hoosiers ended the day atop the standings. \n"It feels good," Hesen said. "I barely lost to a national champion, so it was a heck of a swim."\nThe Hoosiers will enter what some say is the biggest day of the three-day championship event with the lead.\n"The meet is won or lost on day two," Swander said. "You leave it all in the pool on Sunday, so (Friday), anything can change. We're focused and we're going to roll out as they say."\nDay two of the Big Ten Championships begins at noon with preliminaries in the 400-yard individual medley, the 100-yard butterfly, the 200-yard freestyle, the 100-yard breaststroke and the 100-yard backstroke. The finals of the aforementioned events will commence at 7 p.m.