U-M Dominates Toronto in First Dual Meet

Friday, October 23

Ann Arbor, Mich.

3:00 PM

Michigan

186

Toronto

10/23/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving

Oct. 23, 2009

Complete Results | Photo Gallery

Site: Ann Arbor, Mich. (Canham Natatorium)
Result: U-M 186, Toronto 99
Record: U-M (1-0)
Next U-M event: Friday, Nov. 13 -- vs. Oakland University (Canham Natatorium), 5 p.m.; Fri-Sun., Nov. 13-15 -- at Minnesota Grand Prix (Minneapolis, Minn.)

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan men's swimming and diving team dominated in its home opener, defeating the University of Toronto, 186-99, on Friday (Oct. 23) at Canham Natatorium. The Wolverines won the first five events of the meet en route to their first dual-meet victory of the season.

Junior Tyler Clary (Riverside, Calif./Riverside Poly) led the charge for the Wolverines, winning three individual events on the evening -- the 200-yard backstroke, 200-yard individual medley and 400-yard individual medley. He was the only swimmer under the four-minute mark in the 400 IM, hitting the wall in 3:58.48.

In addition to Clary, U-M had four other swimmers win multiple events. Senior André Schultz (Sao Paolo, Brazil/Colegio Palmares) won the 1,000-yard freestyle and 200-yard breaststroke, senior Evan Ryser (Katy, Texas/James E. Taylor) won the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle races, senior Charlie Houchin (Raleigh, N.C./William G. Enloe) took first in the the 200-yard and 500-yard freestyle and senior Alon Mandel (Netanya, Israel/Eldad) touched the wall first in both the 100-yard backstroke and 100-yard butterfly.

In the diving well, freshman Kasey Allen (Louisville, Ky./duPont Manual) came away with the top scores in both the one-meter (312.60) and three-meter (321.90) dives.

The next competition weekend for the Wolverines will be Nov. 13-15 as U-M will see the squad split up for two separate events. Several Wolverines will head up to Minneapolis, Minn., for the prestigious Minnesota Grand Prix (Fri-Sun., Nov. 13-15). The rest of the team will stay in Ann Arbor and play host to Oakland University on Friday, Nov. 13.

N O T E S

• To lead off the meet, the Wolverines won the 200-yard medley relay, 1,000-yard freestyle, 200-yard freestyle, 100-yard backstroke and 100-yard breaststroke to put the meet out of reach. Toronto's first win was in the 200-yard butterfly when Zack Chetrat beat out Adam DeJong by .11 seconds.

• Alon Mandel's time of 48.95 in the 100-yard backstroke is an NCAA 'B' consideration time.

• The Wolverines had the fastest times in both relays, with the 200-yard medley relay team of Miguel Ortiz, Sam Wensman, Chris Brady and Evan Ryser teaming up for a 1:30.51 finish. In the final race of the night, Demetri Karedis held on during the final 25 yards to help his 400-yard freestyle relay team to a win in 3:08.58.

• Tyler Clary's win in the 200-yard individual medley was one of the most dramatic of the evening. Clary was trailing teammate Neal Kennedy as they switched to freestyle for the last 50 yards. At the turn, Clary was still trailing but overcame Kennedy down the stretch to out-touch him by .14 seconds and earn his third individual win of the night.

• Following the 400-yard individual medley, head diving coach Chris Bergère and former head diving coach Dick Kimball, along with Michigan men's and women's divers, performed a diving show. Among the tricks was Kimball riding a bicycle off the platform.

• There was a delay of about 15 minutes in between heats of the women's 500-yard freestyle when the lights in Canham Natatorium went out. A power surge caused some of the lights to go off, with another surge a few seconds later knocking the rest of the lights out.

• This weekend is Alumni Weekend for both the men's and women's programs. The men's 1995 national championship team is being honored at the Penn State football game tomorrow (Saturday, Oct. 24).

• Today's meet marked the 2009-10 season home debut for the team. It was also the first time the Wolverines have competed at Canham Natatorium during the 2009 calendar year. The last home meet for U-M was a double-dual meet against Indiana and Texas, Oct. 31-Nov. 1, 2008, marking a 357-day span in between competition at Matt Mann Pool.

Q U O T E S

Michigan Head Coach Mike Bottom
On the first dual meet of the year ... "Our guys are tired. The idea is to race well and get your hand on the wall while practicing the little things. I think that two things happened. One, we won some close races by a couple one-hundredths, which has really cemented in what we have been talking about: finishing. The guys did make changes in their stroke. We had a video going of the whole meet, so they could see the mistakes they made."

On where the team is at this early in the season ... "I am never going to be where I want to be. I always want to be better. My expectations are real high for these guys, so they will have a hard time meeting them. I would hope that we would be a lot better the next time we get in the water."

On being at Canham Natatorium for the first time in almost a year ... "It is a great meet. We enjoy swimming here. It is a fast pool and it is a lot of fun for us to be here. We had a great crowd tonight and that always helps."

Michigan Head Diving Coach Chris Bergère
On what the divers accomplished today ... "I tend to have a silver lining view when I look at my divers. I saw a lot of good things out there today. I just want to reinforce the positive with them and then tomorrow morning at practice, we will get down to some of the corrections they need to make."