For the No. 7 Michigan men’s swimming and diving team, its start couldn’t have been much better. The Wolverines competed against Minnesota, Wisconsin and Penn State in Minneapolis, eventually sweeping the field.
By the end of the day on Friday, the Wolverines (3-0 in the Big Ten, 5-0 overall) led the Nittany Lions 128-39. On Saturday, they clinched the win in the quad meet by an overwhelming margin of 280-73.
The Wolverines reinforced their reputation of domination in dual meets from there. Their record in dual meets going into the pool this weekend was 84-5-1 since 2007.
“For where we are in the season our team is looking very strong,” said Michigan coach Mike Bottom. “So we just hope to keep improving upon that.”
If Saturday is any indication, Bottom has a high bar to improve on.
In Saturday’s 400-yard freestyle relay, sophomore James Jones, freshman Gus Borges, senior Evan White and senior Paul Powers secured a first-place finish for the Wolverines in the event. Jones gave his relay team a solid lead, letting the rest of the relay team finish off its opponents handily.
The Wolverines also finished first in the 200-yard medley relay. Powers, White, sophomore Jacob Montague, and senior James Peek won with a final time of 1:27.84. A second relay team of Michigan swimmers took the second place finish in the same event.
The 400-yard IM was also noteworthy for the Wolverines. Sophomore Charlie Swanson, freshman Ricardo Vargas, junior Stephen Holmquist and senior PJ Ransford secured the top four finishes, in that order.
In diving, sophomore Jacob Herremans won the one-meter diving competition with 355.55 points, 145.15 points more than that of the 14th place finisher. Herremans has scored above the 350-point benchmark before. Herremans says that his personal goal is to remain consistent in his performance.
“That’s really exciting because that means that our diving and swimming team is moving forward together,” Bottom said. “We’re preparing again to be competitive in the Big Ten Championships.”
While one cannot know if this weekend’s performance is an accurate representation of what will happen in the Big Ten Championships and the NCAA Championships, at the very least, Michigan was able to acclimate itself with the Minnesota pool in order to better prepare for the coming competitions.