Michigan
ACC/Big Ten Challenge
Twelve Student-Athletes to Represent U-M at Big Ten/ACC Challenge
11/8/2018 10:10:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving, Women's Swimming & Diving
THIS WEEK
Sat-Sun., Nov. 10-11 -- at ACC/Big Ten Swimming and Diving Challenge (West Lafayette, Ind.), 5 p.m./10 a.m.
Live Results | Watch: BTN Plus (Saturday) / BTN (Sunday)
• Social Media: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook: Men · Women
Twelve members of the University of Michigan men's and women's swimming and diving program will represent the Maize and Blue at the inaugural Big Ten/ACC Swimming and Diving Challenge, to be held Saturday and Sunday (Nov. 10-11) at the Morgan J. Burke Aquatic Center in West Lafayette, Indiana.
Big Ten Network will provide coverage for the entirety of the event. Saturday's coverage will begin at 5 p.m. on BTN2Go, and Sunday's events will begin at 10 a.m. live on BTN. Bernie Guenther (play-by-play), Margaux Farrell (swimming analyst) and Michael Hixon (diving analyst) will be on the call Sunday. Admission is free to the public.
Participants
WOMEN: Yirong Bi, Christy Cutshaw, Catie DeLoof, Siobhán Haughey, Vanessa Krause, Maggie MacNeil
MEN: Felix Auböck, Luiz Gustavo Borges, Tommy Cope, Charlie Swanson, Ross Todd, Ricardo Vargas
Head coach Mike Bottom will serve as head coach of the Big Ten women's team.
• Full Rosters: ACC | Big Ten
Schedule of Events
Saturday, Nov. 10
400-yard Medley Relay
400-yard IM
100-yard Freestyle
200-yard Backstroke
200-yard Breaststroke
100-yard Butterfly
500-yard Freestyle
Women's Platform Diving
Men's Three-Meter Diving
800-yard Freestyle Relay
Sunday, Nov. 11
200-yard Medley Relay
1,000-yard Freestyle
200-yard Freestyle
100-yard Backstroke
100-yard Breaststroke
200-yard Butterfly
50-yard Freestyle
200-yard IM
Women's Three-Meter Diving
Men's Platform Diving
400-yard Freestyle Relay
Student-Athlete Notes
• One of the most anticipated races of the meet is the 200-yard freestyle on Sunday in which senior Siobhán Haughey, last year's runner-up at the NCAA Championships, likely will line up next to last year's champion, Mallory Comerford (Louisville). Those two have the fastest times in the nation this season: Comerford at 1:42.79 and Haughey at 1:44.45.
• Distance swimmers Ricardo Vargas and Yirong Bi are off to fast starts this season. Vargas posted the nation's fastest time in the 1,000-yard freestyle (8:56.41) last Friday (Nov. 2) at Iowa and is ranked second in the 500-yard freestyle (4:19.92), while Bi is seventh in the 1,000-yard freestyle (9:52.27). Sophomore Felix Auböck is a three-time NCAA runner-up in the distance events, finishing second in both the 500- and 1,650-yard freestyles last season.
• The Wolverines will have a big presence in the breaststroke and IM events with juniors Tommy Cope and Charlie Swanson. Both were All-Americans last season: Swanson in the 400-yard IM (sixth) and Cope in the 200-yard breaststroke (seventh). Swanson is the two-time defending Big Ten champion in the 400-yard IM.
• Freshman Maggie MacNeil has burst onto the national scene in her first few months as a collegiate swimmer. In October, the Canadian international set a school record in the 100-yard butterfly while wearing a training suit; her time of 51.49 is currently No. 1 in the nation. She's also ranked ninth in the 50-yard freestyle (22.46).
• U-M will have two sprinters available in senior Catie DeLoof and sophomore Luiz Gustavo Borges. DeLoof posted huge time drops last year as a junior, culminating in three All-America honors on the freestyle relays. Borges, the son of 10-time NCAA champion Gustavo Borges, was an NCAA Championships qualifier last year as a freshman and holds the third-fastest time in school history in the 50-yard freestyle (19.26).
• Junior Vanessa Krause, a native of Chesterton, Indiana, has two ties to Purdue. At the 2016 Big Ten Championships, held at the Morgan J. Burke Aquatic Center, Krause finished second in the 200-yard butterfly, setting the school record (1:55.74; she lowered that record at last year's NCAA Championships to 1:53.31). In addition, her father, Jeff, swam at Purdue.
• Watch out for sophomore divers Christy Cutshaw and Ross Todd, particularly on platform. Cutshaw was an All-America Honorable Mention last season as a freshman, finishing 10th on tower at the NCAA Championships. Todd broke a few barriers last year in his freshman season, when he became the program's first diver in four years to final on platform at the Big Ten Championships and was the first U-M diver to qualify for the NCAA Championships in 14 years.
Up Next
Thu-Sat., Nov. 29-Dec. 1 -- at UGA Fall Invitational (Athens, Ga.), TBA
Players Mentioned
