No. 5 U-M to Conclude Season at NCAA Championships

Wednesday, March 14

Columbus, Ohio

6:00 PM

Michigan

NCAA Championships

3/12/2018 12:05:00 PM | Women's Swimming & Diving

By: Brad Rudner

» The No. 5-ranked Wolverines are sending a total of 15 student-athletes to the NCAA Championships in Columbus, Ohio, site of their Big Ten title win last month.
» Five swimmers are returning All-Americans from 2017: Gabby DeLoof, G Ryan, Yirong Bi, Clara Smiddy and Siobhán Haughey. Additionally, Miranda Tucker was an All-American for Indiana in 2016.

The No. 5-ranked University of Michigan women's swimming and diving team caps its 2017-18 season this week, sending a total of 15 student-athletes to the 2018 NCAA Championships, held Wednesday through Saturday (March 14-17) at the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion in Columbus, Ohio. The Wolverines, the Big Ten champions for the third consecutive year, finished 10th at NCAAs in 2016 and 11th in 2017.

The team will be comprised of seniors Gabby DeLoof, Emily Kopas, G Ryan and Clara Smiddy; juniors Yirong Bi, Catie DeLoof, Taylor Garcia, Siobhán Haughey and Becca Postoll; sophomores Vanessa Krause and Miranda Tucker; and freshmen Nikki Canale, Christy Cutshaw, Daria Pyshnenko (relays only) and Sierra Schmidt.

ESPNU will broadcast live the championship finals session Friday starting at 5 p.m. The finals session on Saturday will be streamed live by ESPN3 starting at 6 p.m. All sessions not broadcast by either ESPNU or ESPN3 will be streamed live on the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships microsite at www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com. Tape delayed coverage of the women's championships will be broadcast on ESPNU March 25 at 4 p.m.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS AND INVITED PARTICIPANTS
Wednesday, March 14 (6 p.m.)
800-yard Freestyle Relay

Thursday, March 15 (10 a.m./6 p.m.)
200-yard Freestyle Relay
500-yard Freestyle -- Yirong Bi, G Ryan, Sierra Schmidt, Becca Postoll
200-yard IM -- Siobhán Haughey, Clara Smiddy
50-yard Freestyle -- Catie DeLoof
400-yard Medley Relay

Friday, March 16 (9 a.m./5 p.m.)
200-yard Freestyle -- Siobhán Haughey, Gabby DeLoof, Catie DeLoof, Yirong Bi
100-yard Breaststroke -- Miranda Tucker, Emily Kopas
100-yard Backstroke -- Clara Smiddy, Taylor Garcia
Three-Meter Diving -- Nikki Canale
200-yard Medley Relay

Saturday, March 17 (10 a.m./6 p.m.)
1,650-yard Freestyle -- Yirong Bi, Sierra Schmidt, G Ryan
200-yard Backstroke -- Clara Smiddy
100-yard Freestyle -- Siobhán Haughey, Gabby DeLoof, Catie DeLoof
200-yard Breaststroke -- Miranda Tucker, Emily Kopas
200-yard Butterfly -- Vanessa Krause
Platform Diving -- Christy Cutshaw
400-yard Freestyle Relay

SCORING FORMAT
The top eight times (places 1-8) in each preliminary race, including relays, will advance to the evening's finals and earn NCAA All-America (the only exception is the 1,650-yard freestyle, which is a timed final). The next eight times (places 9-16) will swim in the 'B' final and earn NCAA All-America honorable mention. The top 16 finishers will score points for their team.

NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS TIDBITS
HISTORY: The Wolverines have scored points at the NCAA Championships every season since 1983. U-M has finished outside of the top 25 only five times in the past 28 seasons (1986, 2002, 2012-14). It has three top-five finishes in program history: 1993 (5th), 1995 (2nd) and 1996 (3rd). Michigan has secured 16 top-10 finishes, the last coming in 2016 (10th).

CHAMPIONS: U-M has 14 NCAA champions in its history (10 in individual swimming events, three in diving, one relay). The last champion was Emily Brunemann in the 1,650-yard freestyle in 2008.

BEST EVENTS: The Wolverines have tabulated a total of 164 CSCAA All-America honors (103 in individual swimming events, 40 relays, 21 in diving). Traditionally, the best events for Michigan have been the 200-yard IM (14 NCAA All-Americans), the 200-yard freestyle (13), the 400-yard IM (12) and 200-yard breaststroke (11). Last year, the Wolverines earned their first All-America honor on a relay in 10 years, finishing third in the 800-yard freestyle relay. The last time Michigan had two All-America relays in the same season was also 2007 (400-yard freestyle relay, 800-yard freestyle relay).

LAST SEASON: Michigan finished 11th with 159 points, its highest point total in 18 years. The Wolverines got scoring performances from eight individuals and three relays over the course of the four-day meet, including six podium finishes (five individual, one relay). [ Recap ]

LAST TIME OUT
BIG TEN CHAMPIONS (Feb. 14-17): The Wolverines won their third consecutive Big Ten title last month in Columbus, getting scoring performances from 25 student-athletes on the roster. Siobhán Haughey (200-yard freestyle, 200-yard IM), Yirong Bi (500-yard freestyle) and Vanessa Krause (200-yard butterfly) all captured individual titles, while the 400-yard freestyle relay and 800-yard freestyle relay also won. It was the team's first three-peat in 20 years and was the largest margin of victory by any Big Ten team since 2011. [ Recap ]

NCAA ZONE C DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS (March 8-10): Freshmen divers Nikki Canale (three-meter) and Christy Cutshaw (platform) both qualified for the NCAA Championships at the NCAA Zone C Diving Championships, held March 8-10 in Columbus. [ Recaps: Canale | Cutshaw ]

WOLVERINE BITES

• Michigan, along with Louisville and Virginia, have 12 individually-qualified swimmers -- tied for third-most of any school in the country. Only defending national champion Stanford (18) and Texas A&M (16) have more individual qualifiers.

• The women's swimming and diving team has steadily risen through the national ranks since Mike Bottom took over in September 2012.

	DUALS	NCAA	B1G	B1G CHAMPIONS	NCAA ALL-AMERICANS
2012-13	5-4 (4-2 B1G)	36th	6th	0	0
2013-14	6-5 (3-4 B1G)	30th	5th	1	1
2014-15	9-2 (7-0 B1G)	22nd	3rd	1	1
2015-16	8-1 (6-0 B1G)	10th	1st	7	6
2016-17	5-1 (4-0 B1G)	11th	1st	4	6
2017-18	10-0 (7-0 B1G)	--	1st	5	--

• Since the 2015-16 season, 17 of the 18 school records (in short course yards) have been broken -- Courtney Beidler in the 400-yard IM (2014) is the oldest remaining -- with 10 records belonging to swimmers on the 2017-18 roster.

• The Wolverines have an experienced roster, as 11 of the 12 individually-qualified swimmers have competed at a prior NCAA Championships. Eight swimmers -- Gabby DeLoof, Miranda Tucker, Siobhán Haughey, Yirong Bi, G Ryan, Emily Kopas, Clara Smiddy and Vanessa Krause -- all earned at least one CSCAA All-America or All-America Honorable Mention in an individual event. Freshman Sierra Schmidt, the team's lone freshman individual qualifier, has experience on the international stage representing USA Swimming, including serving as a member of the 2017-18 U.S. National Team.

• Miranda Tucker and Taylor Garcia will each make their NCAA Championships debuts with Michigan after transferring in from other programs. Tucker spent one year at Indiana and was national runner-up in the 200-yard breaststroke (2016), while Garcia was a two-time individual qualifier with Arizona (2016, 2017).

• The Wolverines look strongest in the freestyle, getting four individual qualifiers in the 200- and 500-yard freestyles and three in the 100- and 1,650-yard freestyles. All three of their freestyle relays also rank among the top eight heading into the meet.

• The Wolverines are sending at least two divers to the NCAA Championships for the third year in a row, a feat last accomplished from 1987-89. Freshman Nikki Canale qualified on three-meter, while freshman Christy Cutshaw qualified on platform. Since diving coach Mike Hilde took over in 2014, he's sent nine individual qualifiers to the NCAA Championships, matching the total number from the previous 20 years combined (1995-2014). Three of the seven divers to make NCAAs in the last three years have scored: Carey Chen in 2015 (8th on platform), Allie Murphy in 2017 (11th on three-meter) and Kristen Hayden (11th on platform).