On Saturday, the Michigan women’s swimming and diving team competed in 14 events. At the end of the day, the Wolverines (4-0 Big Ten, 5-1 overall) walked away with wins in all of them. It was a meet that they were favored to win, and they made sure that happened, dominating MSU (0-6, 2-8) in East Lansing by a score of 173-80.
“We came in knowing we were the better team,” said Michigan coach Mike Bottom. “The goal wasn’t to win, but to race hard and work on our technique.”
And with the Big Ten Championships coming up in a week and a half, the meet proved to be a nice tune-up for Michigan.
Michigan had several swimmers perform well Saturday, with sophomore Yirong Bi winning two events to lead the way. Bi won the 400-meter individual medley with a time of 4:16.23 and the 100-meter breaststroke with a time of 1:03.90. Bi is normally a distance swimmer, so the 100-meter breaststroke is not something she normally participates in.
Along with Bi, the divers also performed well Saturday, as senior Allie Murphy set a season best in the three-meter dive with a score of 320.70. Freshman Kristen Hayden won the one-meter dive with a score of 297.15.
Along with them, freshmen Vanessa Krause, Annalisa Perez, Monica Babits and Jacqui Schafer were also able to pick up their first wins of the year, in the 50-meter butterfly, 50-meter breaststroke, 100-meter butterfly and 100-meter backstroke, respectively.
“It was nice to see the freshmen winning today,” Bottom said. “A lot of them were able to pick up their first victories of the year.”
With the Big Ten Championship approaching, Michigan was looking forward to a final dual meet where they could focus on the details. Now that the regular season is over, the Wolverines will be looking to rest up and prepare themselves.
“It always feels good to beat a rival,” Bottom said. “It’s important for us to build that confidence for the Big Ten meet.”
With so many freshmen performing well, The Wolverines are certainly living up to Bottom’s wish. They will need the whole team to perform well in order to repeat as conference champions.
But against the Spartans, Michigan certainly showcased an ability to do so.