Michigan men's swim coach Bob Bowman's face was scarlet and his mood was gray.

His team had just lost the first two events to its biggest rival and despite a field of four Big Ten teams, Bowman, saw just one opponent - Ohio State.

No. 4 Michigan needed something to get back on track. It was a short but fiery speech from Bowman that pumped them up.

"A pretty censored version would be, 'The fact is that if Michigan swimming against Ohio State can't get you going, then I don't think anything can,' " junior Bobby Savulich said.

Whatever words Bowman actually used, they worked. After the pep talk, Michigan didn't lose a single event.

The Wolverines not only finished the meet with a 194-140 victory over the Buckeyes (10-1, 3-1 Big Ten), but also handed them their only loss of the season. During the two-day meet, Michigan faced a competitive field of Big Ten opponents. In addition to beating Ohio State, the Wolverines completed their Big Ten Conference regular season a perfect 8-0 by defeating No. 18 Northwestern by 136 points and No. 16 Penn State by 158 points.

Despite a slow start to the meet Saturday, Michigan (10-1, 8-0 Big Ten) won several close and exciting races. Sophomore Scott Spann came from behind in the last lap of his 100-yard breaststroke to win with a time of 55.17. Sophomore Chris Brady won the 100-yard butterfly (47.84) and the 50-yard freestyle, that race by a margin of about a quarter of a second. Savulich edged out two Ohio State swimmers in the 100-yard freestyle (44.29).

As if the speech from Bowman wasn't enough, there was even more pressure on the shoulders of co-captain Alex Vanderkaay. The senior wanted to perform well since it was his final regular-season meet at Canham Natatorium. Vanderkaay's first-place finish in the last leg of the 800-yard freestyle relay helped his team win the meet. It was particularly important for Vankerkaay because it allowed him to end his regular season career with a win.

"That relay is our bread and butter here at Michigan, so we sort of expected to win it," Vanderkaay said. "But it always feels good to win it. I was up on the block and one of my teammates was yelling 'last one, come on, last one.' There was a little added pressure - like, I don't want to screw up my last meet here."

The Wolverines completed their regular season with just one loss, which came against No. 1 Texas in November. Michigan is favored to win the Big Ten Championship meet later this month, but, even with victories against all three conference teams, the gaffes against the Buckeyes were reminders that the Wolverines are not perfect. Michigan lost five events, including two relays, by less than one second.

Despite some of the mistakes, Savulich said he isn't worried about his team being prepared for the Big Ten Championship meet.

"Everything is there, all the training, we just have to get mentally down to it and be ready to go," he said. "We weren't as sharp as we're going to be at Big Tens, and we know that. and (Ohio State) is going to find that out in about a month."

Next time, they won't need a speech from Bowman.