Michigan
Big Ten Championships
Groumi, Szabados Win Individual Titles, Michigan Finishes Third at B1G Championships
3/2/2024 11:05:00 PM | Men's Swimming & Diving
Site: Columbus, Ohio (McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion)
Event: Big Ten Championships (Day 4 of 4)
Score: 3rd of 8 Teams (1,153.5 points)
Next U-M Event: Sunday, March 10 -- Last Chance Meet
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Behind conference titles by Gal Groumi and Bence Szabados, the No. 18-ranked University of Michigan men's swimming and diving team finished third with a total of 1,153.5 points at the Big Ten Championships on Saturday (March 2) at McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion.
Groumi took the 200-yard butterfly crown while Szabados won the 100-yard freestyle championship, the first individual win of his career. For their efforts, both swimmers were named to the All-Big Ten first team. Groumi also was honored as the Big Ten Swimmer of the Championships. Colin Geer won Big Ten Freshman of the Year, marking the second straight year a Wolverine has earned the honor after Eitan Ben-Shitrit received the accolade in 2023.
After 12 swimmers and two divers punched their tickets to a final in Saturday's morning session, Cameron Gammage and Logan Hepner wrapped up the diving portion of the competition in the platform consolation final. Gammage posted a score of 313.15 to finish 11th overall while Hepner took 16th with a tally of 232.70.
Over in the pool, Ben-Shitrit and Jacque Wenger battled in the 'A' final of the 200-yard backstroke. Ben-Shitrit finished fifth with a mark of 1:42.41, and Wenger secured sixth by touching the wall at 1:42.46.
Seeking his first individual Big Ten title of his storied career, Szabados hit the pool for the 100 free as the top seed. He powered through the pool and out-touched Wisconsin's Taiko Torepe-Ormsby by 0.01 seconds to win gold.
Michigan closed out the individual events with another dominant display in the butterfly, this time in the 200-yard event. Three Wolverines made the championship final as Geer, Groumi and Tyler Ray posted top-eight times in the preliminaries. It was Groumi who came out on top in a hotly contested final, coming from behind to outlast Indiana's Tomer Frankel and win his second Big Ten gold medal of the week.
The 400-yard freestyle relay team provided a fitting end to a solid week for the Maize and Blue. The quartet of Ben-Shitrit, Groumi, Szabados and Wilkening broke the school record by nearly a full second, clocking a 2:48.45. All five of Michigan's relay teams secured a medal during the championships.
Select Michigan swimmers will be in action on Sunday (March 10), looking to post season- and personal-best times at the Last Chance Meet. Location and time of the meet is to be announced.
Final Team Standings
1. No. 5 Indiana         1,520 points 2. No. 13 Ohio State     1,226 3. No. 18 Michigan       1,153.5 4. No. 21 Wisconsin      1,044.5 5. Minnesota              849.5 6. Northwestern           725 7. Penn State             683 8. Purdue                 651.5
Players Mentioned
