With the Big Ten Championships approaching in a week and a half, the Michigan men’s swimming and diving team needed a tune-up after a grueling regular season.
In the regular season finale against Michigan State (0-5 Big Ten, 2-6 overall) on Saturday, the seventh-ranked Wolverines (3-1, 5-1) won 13 of 14 events to earn a 160-90 victory.
“We were expecting a win,” said Michigan coach Mike Bottom. “We wanted to be prepared for the Big Ten meet coming up.”
The freshmen, especially, had a big day, as five of them won their respective events. They were able to gain confidence in a low-risk meet.
“The freshmen are going to have an impact on how we do at Big Tens,” Bottom said. “It was good for them to get some confidence today.
Freshman Rob Zofchak won a tight race in the 100-meter backstroke with a time of 50.37, which was 0.01 seconds faster than the second-place swimmer.
Freshman Felix Auböck, who won the 500-meter freestyle with a time of 4:27.61, which was more than seven seconds faster than the second-place finisher.
Rounding out the freshmen, were Charlie Swanson, Mike Smachlo and James Jones, who won the 400-meter individual medley, 200-meter freestyle, and 100-meter butterfly, respectively.
Senior Chris Klein also had a great performance in the last regular-season meet of his collegiate career. The Ann Arbor native won two events during his final meet in his home state.
“It was nice to see kids from Michigan winning today,” Bottom said. “Anytime you can get that win in your final meet in your home state, it’s special.”
With the whole team performing well, Saturday proved to be a strong opportunity to cap off its season before traveling to West Lafayette for the Big Ten Championships.
Michigan will need its freshman to perform in West Lafayette, and the meet was a good step in the right direction for their confidence.
“We will go back and watch film on today’s meet,” Bottom said. “We will have a couple adjustments to make before Big Tens.”
Though there are still things that the Wolverines will need to work on leading up to the Big Ten Championships, for now, Michigan will enjoy a big victory over its in-state rival.