After a dominant performance against in-state rival Purdue last week, No. 5 Indiana men’s swim and dive finished its regular-season competition against the University of Evansville on Friday. Indiana won 140-104 inside Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center in Bloomington, Indiana.
With the win, the men finish the 2021-22 season with a 9-0 record and maintain a dual-meet win record of 15 straight, dating back to 2019.
Head swimming coach Ray Looze wanted this meet to serve as a fun, low-st
ress competition after a long season and before a high-pressure postseason beginning with Big Ten Championships starting Feb. 23.
Looze said the Hoosiers went into the meet continuing to work toward post-season goals, specifically testing out different relay combinations.
“We’re just playing around with different combinations,” Looze said. “Today we were just trying to field competitive relays across three levels. We wanted A, B, C, D to have a good race.”
While Indiana has been changing up its 200-yard medley relays throughout the season, the squads continue to win the event. Indiana’s ‘A’ squad of seniors Jacob Steele and Brandon Hamblin, freshman Luke Barr and sophomore Tomer Frankel finished in first with a time of 1:27.16 against Evansville. The ‘C’ squad of seniors Bruno Blaskovic and Gabriel Fantoni, sophomore Gavin Wight and freshman Rafael Miroslaw finished second, timing in at 1:28.09.
In the 200-yard freestyle relay, Indiana took the top two spots with its ‘A’ squad of senior Van Mathias and Hamblin, Frankel and junior Jacob Destrampe taking first with a time of 1:20.39 and the ‘B’ squad of Blaskovic, Barr and juniors Brendan Burns and Max Scott timing in at 1:22.15 to grab second.
[Related: No. 13 Indiana women’s swim and dive takes down Evansville in regular season finale]
With the season coming to an end, Indiana was able to try out athletes in different events and feature some younger swimmers.
Freshman Jasper Davis won the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:41.70. Freshman Joe Radde placed first in the 100-yard backstroke, marking a 49.16 in the event. Steele raced in the 200-yard butterfly, an unusual event for him as he usually swims backstroke and individual medley events, and placed first with a time of 1:52.90.
Indiana swept both the 200-yard individual medley and 500-yard freestyle. Freshman Rafael Miroslaw secured first in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 1:50.47, followed by Radde with a time of 1:55.39 and senior Mikey Calvillo timing in at 1:55.44.
In the other Hoosier sweep, the 500-yard freestyle, sophomore Ben McDade took first with a time of 4:32.50. He swam to first with a seven-second difference between his teammate and second-place finisher senior Michael Draves, who timed in at 4:39.45. Freshman Jackson Carlile came in third with a time of 4:40.16.
Three Hoosiers had career-best times in their events to finish out the meet.
Senior Corey Gambardella took first place in the 100-yard free with a new career-best time of 45.42. Sophomore Logan Graham also marked a career-best when he placed first in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 1:47.81. Lastly, senior Michael Draves capped off his senior year with a win in the 1,000-yard freestyle and a new career-best. He timed in at 9:29.86 to secure the win. His past career-best time in this event was a time of 9:37.69, which was recorded Nov. 17, 2018.
Draves soaked in this great win and remarked on the special meaning it has as he finishes his time at Indiana University.
“It’s awesome. It feels super good,” Draves said. “I’ve been racing all four years here, and it’s all amounted to this. It’s a really incredible feeling.”
Ahead for Indiana is two months of championship competition, with the Big Ten Championships beginning Feb. 23 and NCAA Championships in March.
