College Swimming Roundup: Conference Season Part 2

COLLEGE SWIMMING ROUNDUP

🏊‍♀️ SWIMS OF THE WEEK 🏊🏽‍♂️

Let’s get some more Power Five action here!

Big Ten Men’s Champs

Indiana took a good-sized 300 point win over Ohio State in Columbus. If it was at all in question, the Hoosiers slammed the door with a huge 1-2-3-4 finish in the 200 breast, featuring Jassen Yep (1:50.40 PR), Josh Matheny (1:51.50), Toby Barnett (1:51.95 PR), and Max Reich (1:52.07). They also got titles from Tomer Frankel (44.32 100 fly) and Brendan Burns (44.62/1:39.50 backs), as well as 4 of the 5 relays, culminating with a Raphael Miroslaw (41.56)/Mikkel Lee (41.76) 400 free relay back half to run down a strong Michigan relay, 2:48.19-2:48.45.

Speaking of the Wolverines, Gal Cohen Groumi was named Swimmer of the Meet in winning the 200 IM (1:40.48 PR) and 200 fly (1:39.60 PR), the latter spoiling Hoosier Burns’s attempt at his third consecutive 2back/2fly double champs.

Groumi also PRs his 100/200 frees on relay leadoffs (42.52/1:32.07) and took 2nd in the 100 fly (44.60). Michigan also featured the Freshman of the Meet in Colin Geer who swam the same lineup as Groumi (46.02/1:41.32 flys, 1:42.82 IM, all PRs). Their fly group overall is pretty nasty, with breakout sophomore Tyler Ray (44.77/1:40.80) also scoring big points. Ray’s dropped 5.5 second in that 2fly this year, while Geer has taken his down by 3.5 seconds.

Even missing a couple pieces and with 2-time defending 500 champ Jake Newmark not swimming his typical lineup, Wisconsin had their best Big Ten meet in awhile. Yigit Aslan used a quick stroke rate and a 48.61 final 100 to give the Badgers 3 consecutive titles in the event with a 4:11.20. The same day, Tai Torepe-Ormsby parlayed a fantastic turn and breakout into an 18.76 50 free win. He’s dropped .9 in this event this year. Dominik Mark-Torok defended his 400 IM title with a 3:41.69, and the Badgers won their first relay title in a long, long while with a 1:15.35 200 free relay (Torepe-Ormsby 18.90/Benson 18.49/Wiegand 18.87/Morris 19.09) that came within a tenth of the meet/conference record.

Pac-12 Women’s Champs

Dave Durden’s Cal Bears took the final Pac-12 women’s championship in a battle with USC and Stanford. Isabelle Stadden as usual paved the way for the Golden Bears, sweeping the backstrokes in 50.39/1:50.16 with strong relay legs, but she’s clearly saving some up for NCAAs. Cal also got wins in the butterflys as Mia Kragh took the 100 in a 50.89 PR while Rachel Klinker followed up on her breakthrough Worlds performance with a huge 1:51.74 PR in the 200 - her first improvement since 2022 NCAAs. She took a close win over Lindsay Looney, who’s 1:52.14 was a PR of her own and who also won the 500 free in a 3-second PR 4:35.05.

Stanford’s new IM Queen, freshman Caroline Bricker, was named Swimmer of the Meet after doubling up on the IMs 1:53.31/4:02.31 and taking 2nd in the 2breast in 2:07.20.

Just for kicks, she added a 1:52.07 200 fly time trial. Interesting last day event decision for her coming up. Also notable for the Cardinal, Aurora Roghair continued her season of big improvements with a #2 ranked 15:46.35 mile PR.

USC’s Minna Abraham was the highlight for the runner-up Trojans, winning the 100/200 free (47.69/1:42.42) and taking 5th in the 200 IM (1:55.82 with a 26.44 free split) and providing ace relay splits throughout ( 21.50/46.82/1:42.45). The Hungarian freshman is still only 17 years old.

Big 12 Champs

A few new faces at this meet - Houston, Cincinnati, BYU - but the same general result as Texas took home another double title. As has been the case the past couple years, the Longhorn women were powered by their flyers and breaststrokers - Lydia Jacoby swept in 57.27/2:05.58 over teammate Anna Elendt as the former ramps up after taking the first semester off competition, while Kelly Pash and Emma Sticklen had a fantastic 200 fly race, staying within a couple tenths after the first 50 and finishing 1:51.66-1:51.68 respectively, while Sticklen also took the 100 fly (50.61) and Pash the 200 IM (1:53.80) and 200 free (1:42.97).

Joleigh Crye had the best non-Texas swim of the meet, as the Bearcat hit a .8 second PR 58.24 100 breast that’s ranked #9 nationally. That was her first couple times sub-59, and some big improvements for the sophomore who was 1:01 out of high school. Henrietta Fangli’s 59.29 in the same event and WVU Mountaineer Mia Cheatwood’s 2:09.19 200 breast put them in good position to qualify for NCAAs as well.

The story of the men’s side was the Texas freshmen. The Longhorns probably don’t have the firepower this year to contend for an NCAA podium spot, but they showcased that they do have a strong potential core for the next few years. They opened up the meet with a 1:22.46 all-freshman 200 medley relay featuring Will Modglin (20.49), Will Scholtz (23.17), Nate Germonprez (19.82), and Camden Taylor (18.98). Modglin and Germonprez would go 1-2 and for PRs in the 200 IM (1:41.01-1:41.29), and while Taylor probably won’t make NCAAs individually, his 19.58/42.53/1:33.90 frees were big PRs and he showed strong relay chops with a 41.69 400 free relay anchor.

Meanwhile, BYU had a big weekend. Jordan Tiffany, already a revelation after transferring from Tennessee and taking a year off NCAA competition, set new PRs with 42.25 100 free, 44.51 100 fly, and 1:41.88 200 IM. He obviously has A finalist potential in the latter two, plus the 100 back. Brad Prolo also booked a sure spot for NCAAs with a 1:41.15 200 fly win - this is a guy who’s consistently dropped a second per season in that event since coming back from his Mormon mission in Ukraine.

Another guy who’s made huge strides over his college career is Cincinnati’s Hunter Gubeno. A 1:47 2back out of high school, he’s steadly dropped chunks of time and popped his first sub-1:41 and sub-1:40 last week, staying close to Modglin for a 1:39.95 NCAA lock.

More Mid-Major Action

Another batch of D1 mid-major meets this week as titles are crowned and NCAA berths are booked:

🏊🏽‍♂️ Weekend Preview 🏊🏼

Not much left! Pac-12 and MAC men finish up conference season. NAIA and NJCAA National Champions are decided.