Michigan
Big Ten Championships (Day 2)
Sayao Leads Michigan Charge into First Place at Big Tens
2/28/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving
Big Ten Championships Site
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Behind a pair of Big Ten titles as well as two runner-up showings, the No. 4-ranked University of Michigan swimming and diving concluded Friday night's (Feb. 28) action of the Big Ten Conference Championships atop the leaderboard with a conference-best 473.5 points in front of its home fans in Canham Natatorium.
| | Sayao broke Tim Siciliano's pool record in the 400 IM prelims, then reset the mark with his winning time in the final. |
Sophomore Chuck Sayao (Mississauga, Ontario/Cawthral Park HS) started the Wolverines out on the right foot when he opened the individual portion of the event finals with a victory in the 400 IM. Sayao earned his first Big Ten crown with a pool-record and NCAA automatic qualifying time of 3:46.50.
Classmate Brendan Neligan (Briarwood, N.Y./Archbishop Molloy HS) added to the Michigan point total when he placed third in the event with an NCAA consideration time of 3:49.20, while senior co-captain Heath Novak (Allison Park, Pa./North Allegheny HS) won the consolation final with a personal-best time of 3:53.16 and sophomore Nicholas Douville (Dayton, Ohio/Archbishop Alter HS) finished 12th (3:56.07).
U-M earned 23 more points in the 100-yard butterfly as Davis Tarwater (Knoxville, Tenn./Webb School) and Tony Kurth (Toledo, Ohio/St. Francis de Sales HS) finished fifth and ninth, respectively. Tarwater touched the wall in an NCAA consideration time of 48.37. Kurth, who helped the Wolverines win four of the night's five consolation finals, clocked in with an NCAA consideration time of 48.38.
Behind a 2-3-5-6-9-10 finish in the 200-yard freestyle, the Maize and Blue took a brief 17.5-point lead in the overall standings. Junior Dan Ketchum (Cincinnati, Ohio/Sycamore HS), the event champion in 2001 and 2002, led the surge with a runner-up and NCAA automatic qualifying time of 1:34.99 and was followed into the wall by senior Garrett Mangieri (Closter N.J./Mercersburg HS), who placed third in 1:36.26, an NCAA automatic mark.
Freshmen Peter Vanderkaay (Rochester, Mich./Adams HS) and Tyler DeBerry (Tucson, Ariz./Sabino HS) took fifth and sixth with NCAA consideration times of 1:36.50 and 1:37.40, respectively, while Chris DeJong (Holland, Mich./Holland HS) and Andrew Hurd (Oakville, Ontario/Oakville Trafalger HS) placed ninth (1:37.84) and 10th (1:38.21) to round out the scoring.
Fifth-year senior Jeff Hopwood (Palo Alto, Calif./Palo Alto HS) and senior/junior Josh Hack (Chelsea, Mich./Chelsea HS) took third and 11th in the 100-yard breaststroke, respectively. Hopwood's time of 54.29 earned him an automatic trip to the NCAA Championships (March 27-29) in Austin, Texas as it came in below the NCAA automatic standard of 54.30.
Michigan continued to keep itself in the team race with sixth- and ninth-place finishes in the 100-yard backstroke. Both DeJong and Ryan Earhart (Cincinnati, Ohio/St. Xavier HS) posted season-best times in the race, DeJong with an NCAA-consideration 48.42 and Earhart at 49.87.
Heading into the final two events of the day -- three-meter diving and 800-yard freestyle relay -- Michigan trailed Minnesota by just half a point, but with strong performances in each event, the Wolverines concluded the second day with an 11.5-point advantage over the Golden Gophers (473.5-462).
Junior Jason Coben (Newtown Square, Pa./Marple Newtown HS) handed Michigan 16 points when he took third place on the three-meter springboard with an NCAA zone diving qualifying total score of 556.30, putting the Wolverines 4.5 points ahead of Minnesota (433.5-428) with just the 800-yard freestyle relay left.
In that final race of the evening Michigan's foursome of Tarwater, Mangieri, Vanderkaay and Ketchum captured the Big Ten title and 40 additional team as they clocked in with a pool-record and NCAA automatic time of 6:26.33.
The Wolverines will try to finish off their 32nd Big Ten Conference title during Saturday's (March 1) final day of competition at the Big Ten Championships. Preliminaries begin at noon, while finals action gets started with the 1,650-yard freestyle timed final at 4:50 p.m. The final heat of the mile will start a 7 p.m.
Team Standings (After Day 2)
1. MICHIGAN 473.50 2. Minnesota 462 3. Indiana 309.50 4. Northwestern 252 5. Wisconsin 248 6. Penn State 226.50 7. Ohio State 192 8. Purdue 188 9. Iowa 133 10. Michigan State 109.50
Event Winners/U-M Finishes (Day 2)
(Preliminary time in parentheses if faster than finals time)
200-yard Medley Relay
1. Minnesota 1:26.13*$! (Todd Smolinski, Jeff Hackler, Bjorn Lundin, Allen Ong) 6. Michigan 1:29.30# (Chris DeJong, Jeff Hopwood, Davis Tarwater, Garrett Mangieri)
400-yard Individual Medley
1. Chuck Sayao, U-M 3:46.50*! 3. Brendan Neligan, U-M 3:49.20# 9. Heath Novak, U-M 3:53.16# 12. Nick Douville, U-M 3:56.07 (3:55.74)
100-yard Butterfly
1. Eugene Botes, Penn State 47.40# (47.08!%*) 6. Davis Tarwater, U-M 48.37# (47.90) 9. Tony Kurth, U-M 48.38#
200-yard Freestyle
1. Terry Silkaitis, Minnesota 1:34.42*! 2. Dan Ketchum, U-M 1:34.99* 3. Garrett Mangieri, U-M 1:36.26* (1:36.04*) 5. Peter Vanderkaay, U-M 1:36.50# (1:36.44#) 6. Tyler DeBerry, U-M 1:37.40# (1:36.53#) 9. Chris DeJong, U-M 1:37.84# (1:37.59#) 10. Andrew Hurd, U-M 1:38.21#
100-yard Breaststroke
1. Jeff Hackler, Minnesota 53.67*! 3. Jeff Hopwood, U-M 54.29* 11. Josh Hack, U-M 55.90#
100-yard Backstroke
1. Todd Smolinski, Minnesota 47.28* (47.23!*) 6. Chris DeJong, U-M 48.42# 9. Ryan Earhart, U-M 49.87
Three-meter Diving
1. Timo Klami, Iowa 596.40 3. Jason Coben, U-M 556.30
800-yard Freestyle Relay
1. Michigan 6:24.33*! (Davis Tarwater, Garrett Mangieri, Peter Vanderkaay, Dan Ketchum) * NCAA automatic time # NCAA consideration time $ Big Ten meet record ! Canham Natatorium record
Day 1 Results
N O T E S
Senior-tri captain Heath Novak set a new personal best in the 400-yard individual medley when he touched the wall in first place of the B final of the event with an NCAA consideration time of 3:53.16.
Novak's victory in the 400-yard IM consolation final (ninth place overall) marks his highest finish at the Big Ten Championships in his career. His previous best was a 12th-place showing at the 2001 conference meet.
Chuck Sayao's victory in the 400-yard individual medley represents the sixth straight time a Wolverine has won the event. Andy Potts (1996-99) got things started for U-M with his win in 1998, while Tim Siciliano (1999-2002) won four straight titles from 1999-2002.
Michigan's win the 800-yard freestyle relay marked the third consecutive year it has stood atop the podium in the event. Since 1965 U-M has won the event 16 times (1965, '68, '69, '78, '79, '83, '84, '87, '92, '93, '94, '95, '97, '98, 2001, '02).
The Wolverines got a pair of Canham Natatorium pool-record performances tonight from Chuck Sayao and the 800-yard freestyle relay team. Sayao actually twice broke the 400 IM record as he swam 3:48.77 in prelims to break former Wolverine Tim Siciliano's record (3:49.16) and returned to win the race in 3:46.50. The 800-yard freestyle relay team shattered the previous pool record in the event as they came in at 6:264.33, nearly six seconds bettered than Minnesota's 2000 time of 6:30.46.
Michigan won four of the five consolation finals this evening as Heath Novak (400-individual medley), Tony Kurth (100-yard butterfly), Chris DeJong (200-yard freestyle) and Ryan Earhart (100-yard backstroke) accounted for 36 total points.
Contact: Gene Skidmore (734) 763-4423
Players Mentioned
