Michigan
Big Ten Championships (Day 2)
Siciliano Earns Fourth Consecutive Big Ten 400 IM Title
3/1/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Five more Big Ten Conference meet records fell on Friday (March 1) at the Counsilman and Billingsley Aquatic Center and the No. 10-ranked Michigan men's swimming and diving team was responsible for three of them. The Wolverines posted conference records in the 800-yard freestyle relay, the 400-yard individual medley and the 200-yard freestyle on the second day of the Big Ten Championships en route to a two-day total of 415.5 points, which keeps the Wolverines in second place behind Minnesota (487 points).
| | Tim Siciliano is just the second person to win four Big Ten 400 IM titles. |
Following Ketchum in the 200-yard freestyle was junior Garrett Mangieri (Closter, N.J./Mercersburg Academy, Pa.). Mangieri earned an NCAA automatic qualifying mark with a time of 1:35.65. Mangieri then joined with Ketchum to help lead the 800-yard freestyle relay to a Big Ten meet record and a first-place finish with an NCAA automatic qualifying time of 6:22.82.
Joining Ketchum and Mangieri on the relay were freshmen Andrew Hurd (Oakville, Ontario/Trafalger HS) and Brendan Neligan (Briarwood, N.Y./Archbishop Molloy HS). The Wolverines broke the previous Big Ten meet record of 6:24.91, which was set by Michigan's Tom Dolan, John Piersma, Jason Lancaster and Chris Rumley in 1995.
Michigan also got another huge performance from senior Tim Siciliano (San Marcos, Calif./San Marcos HS) as he won the 400-yard individual medley for the fourth year in a row. With a time of 3:46.13, Siciliano established a pool record and became the sixth different Wolverine to win four Big Ten titles in one event.
Siciliano led what was Michigan's strongest event of the day. With four people in the A final, the Wolverines had three swimmers in the top five. Along with Siciliano in first, Neligan placed third with an NCAA consideration mark of 3:48.47 and freshman Chuck Sayao (Mississauga, Ontario/Cawthra Park HS) posted a time of 3:51.13 to finish fifth.
The Wolverines had three other top-four finishes, led by diver Jason Coben's (Newtown Square, Pa./Marple Newtown HS) runner-up performance on the three-meter board with a score of 569.60. Junior All-American Jeff Hopwood (Palo Alto, Calif./Palo Alto HS) was Michigan's top performer in the 100-yard breaststroke, placing third with an NCAA automatic qualifying time of 54.24, while senior Jordan Watland (Excelsior, Minn./Minnetonka HS) took fourth in the 100-yard backstroke with an NCAA consideration time of 48.63.
Michigan will conclude the Big Ten Championships on Saturday (March 2) at the Counsilman and Billingsley Aquatic Center. Preliminaries will start at noon and finals will begin at 7 p.m.
Team Standings (After Day 2)
1. Minnesota 487 2. MICHIGAN 415.50 3. Penn State 290 4. Wisconsin 253.50 5. Indiana 241 6. Ohio State 236 7. Northwestern 227 8. Purdue 184 9. Iowa 167 10. Michigan State 93
Event Winners/U-M Finishes (Day 2)
(Preliminary time in parentheses if faster than finals time)
200-yard Medley Relay
1. Minnesota 1:26.23@ (Todd Smolinski, Jeff Hackler, Bjorn Lundin, Allen Ong) 6. Michigan 1:29.18# (Jordan Watland, Jeff Hopwood, Tony Kurth, Matt Raines)400-yard Individual Medley
1. Tim Siciliano, U-M 3:46.13*$ 3. Brendan Neligan, U-M 3:48.47# 5. Chuck Sayao, U-M 3:51.13# (3:50.89) 7. Eric Wilson, U-M 3:53.05# (3:51.42) 11. Jason Mallory, U-M 3:55.09 13. Heath Novak, U-M 3:55.27 17. Nicholas Douville, U-M 3:57.42100-yard Butterfly
1. Chad Krastins, Minnesota 47.45# (47.01*@$) 11. Tony Kurth, U-M 48.36# 19. Christian Vanderkaay, U-M 49.23 21. Edward Lippincott, U-M 49.52200-yard Freestyle
1. Dan Ketchum, U-M 1:34.19*@$ 2. Garrett Mangieri, U-M 1:35.65* 10. Andrew Hurd, U-M 1:38.11# 15. Mike Porth, U-M 1:39.13# (1:39.02#) 49. Tim Wera, U-M 1:43.95100-yard Breaststroke
1. Jeff Hackler, Minnesota 53.66*@$ 3. Jeff Hopwood, U-M 54.24*100-yard Backstroke
1. Todd Smolinski, Minnesota 47.34* (47.10*$) 4. Jordan Watland, U-M 48.63# (48.58#) 10. Ryan Earhart, U-M 49.63 (49.58) 16. Michael Galindo, U-M 50.73 (50.20) 28. Andrew Hack, U-M 52.09Three-meter Diving
1. Heath Knowling, Ohio State 582.45^ 2. Jason Coben, U-M 569.60^ 16. Dustin Garwood, U-M 404.30800-yard Freestyle Relay
1. Michigan 6:22.82*@$ (Garrett Mangieri, Brendan Neligan, Andrew Hurd, Dan Ketchum) * NCAA automatic qualifying time # NCAA consideration time @ Big Ten Championships record $ Counsilman and Billingsley Aquatic Center record
Day 1 Results
Q U O T E S
U-M Head Coach Jon Urbanchek
On the team's performance ... "We're going to have to score some big points in the mile tomorrow to compete. We had a lot of ninth-place finishes, which hurt us pointwise because they weren't in the "A" final. Minnesota also had some guys barely qualify and then really improve their standing at night. We're not out of it though and we're going to give it a run tomorrow."
Senior Tim Siciliano
On winning his fourth Big Ten title ... "It's great to win again. It really hurt racing today and I was tired, but I knew our team needed it. This is something I'll be able to appreciate for a long time."
N O T E S
Tim Siciliano joins an impressive list of Michigan swimmers who have won an event four times at the Big Ten Championships: Fernando Canales (1978-82, 100 freestyle), Gustavo Borges (1992-95, 100 and 200 freestyle), Chris Thompson (1998-2001, 500 and 1,650 freestyle), Derya Buyukuncu (1995-98, 100 and 200 backstroke), Mike Barrowman (1988-91, 200 breaststroke).
Tim Siciliano joins Iowa's John Davey (1985-88) as the only men to win four straight Big Ten titles in the 400 individual medley, an event that has been contested at the Big Ten Championships since 1963.
The Wolverines have won nine of the last 12 Big Ten titles in the 400 IM. Other Wolverine winners in addition to Siciliano (1999-2002) include current assistant coach Eric Namesnik (1991), Marcel Wouda (1993), Tom Dolan (1994-95) and Andy Potts (1998).
Jason Coben's runner-up finish on the three-meter springboard marks Michigan's top diving finish since 1999, when Brett Wilmot won the platform competition and Josh Trexler placed second in the one-meter event.
Contact: David Crabtree (734) 763-4423
Players Mentioned
