By Rajat Khare, For the Daily
Published December 4, 2011
The Michigan men’s swimming team dove out to an early lead this weekend at its first-ever Hawkeye Invitational and never looked back.
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The Wolverines justified their No. 1 ranking, finishing the tournament with 967 points— 244 ahead of second-place Iowa.
Competing against six other teams, Michigan won four events on Friday, tallying 280.5 points on the first day of the three-day tournament.
Michigan (5-0-0) set the tone early by dominating the 500-yard freestyle. Sophomore Connor Jaeger set the pool record with a time of 4:15.94 in the event.
The Wolverines also won the 400-yard medley relay and the 50-yard freestyle, thanks in part to a pool-record time of 19.66 seconds by junior Evan Gregg.
“Having a three-day meet like this, it’s important to keep momentum,” Jaeger said. “Starting the day off strong with four wins makes it that much easier to come back the next day and be ready to swim fast again.”
Michigan did exactly that, winning six more events on Saturday, bringing its point tally to 654.
The Wolverines' 200-yard medley relay team started the day with a pool-record setting win at 1:26.36. Sophomore Kyle Whitaker continued the trend of dominance on Saturday, winning the 400-yard individual medley and setting the pool record at 3:45.17.
Other Wolverines matched Whitaker’s performance, as sophomore John Wojciechowski set the pool record in the 100-yard butterfly at 46.61, and freshmen Bruno Ortiz set the pool record in the 100-yard backstroke at 54.23.
Michigan also set pool records in the 100-yard backstroke and 800-yard freestyle stroke.
The story on Sunday was no different, as Michigan once again took first place in most of the events.
Jaeger got the Wolverines off to yet another strong start with his pool-record time of 14:55.70 in the 1,650-yard freestyle.
Michigan followed up his performance up with pool-record setting times in the 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard breaststroke, 200-yard butterfly, and 400-yard freestyle relay.
“As a group we’ve been pushing each other at every practice and staying motivated for the meets at the end of the year,” Jaeger said.
But the Wolverines will put this win behind them and look to carry its momentum further into the season.
“This isn’t the end of the season, this is really just the beginning,” Jaeger said.
