Season Review: 2023-24 Michigan Men's Swimming and Diving
5/21/2024 4:13:00 PM | Men's Swimming & Diving
• Record: 1-3, 0-3 Big Ten Conference
• Big Ten Championships: 3rd Place (1,153.5 points)
• NCAA Championships: 14th Place (87.5 points)
The University of Michigan men's swimming and diving team entered a new era under first-year head coach Matt Bowe and saw dramatic improvement both on an individual and team level with multiple Big Ten champions and an NCAA finish six spots higher than 2023.
Team Highlights
• Michigan got off to a solid start with a dual-meet win over Arizona on Oct. 21. The Wolverines tallied 239 points and outscored Arizona by more than 100 to secure its first head-to-head win of the Matt Bowe era. Three men took individual wins with Cameron Gammage, Tyler Ray and Jack Wilkening each capturing event victories.
• U-M traveled south to compete to Athens, Ga., to take part in the Georgia Inviational to mark the midpoint of the season. The Maize and Blue finished fifth as Gal Groumi highlighted the individual efforts with a win in the 200-yard butterfly.
• Following the regular season, Michigan traveled to Columbus, Ohio, for the Big Ten Championships, placing third with 1,153.5 points, finishing behind only Ohio State and Indiana. The Wolverines posted numerous top-three finishes and captured three individual Big Ten titles during the four-day championship meet.
• Ten Wolverines (nine swimmers and one diver) punched their tickets to the NCAA Championships in Indianapolis, Ind. Michigan finished 14th with 87.5 points up six places from its team result in 2023. All nine swimmers that traveled landed on an All-America team with Groumi earning first-team honors.
Individual Highlights
• Junior Gal Groumi led the way for the Wolverines in 2023-24, winning two Big Ten titles (200-yard IM and 200-yard butterfly) and breaking multiple school records and a Big Ten Championship record along the way. Groumi logged a time of 1:40.48 in the 200 IM to set a new program and Big Ten Championship mark. No man in Michigan program history had posted a sub-1:41 before Groumi. He also took home the 200 fly conference crown with a time of 1:39.60 and finished second in the 100 fly with a mark of 44.60 seconds. Groumi tallied 92 individual points and took home the Big Ten Swimmer of the Championships honor. At the NCAA Championships, Groumi qualified for the championship final in all three of the individual events he competed in (100 fly, 200 fly, 200 IM) and earned All-America honors in each race.
• Senior Bence Szabados put together a stellar season for the Maize and Blue, anchoring the short-distance freestyle and butterfly units. Szabados was particularly dominant in the 50-yard freestyle throughout much of the regular season, routinely placing within the top three. Szabados saved his best swims for the Big Ten Championships; the Chicago, Ill., native just missed the top of the podium in the 50 free but came back to win the 100-yard race with a time of 42.09 to capture the first individual conference win of his career. Szabados tallied 80.5 individual points and landed on the All-Big Ten first team.
• Colin Geer made a strong impression in his first season at Michigan, emerging as one of the top butterfly and individual medley specialists on the roster. In the regular season, Geer finished second in the 200-yard butterfly at the Georgia Invitational, logging a strong mark of 1:43.56. The freshman provided a huge boost at the Big Ten Championships, qualifying for three championships finals and placing in the top five in the 200 fly and 200 IM. For his efforts, Geer was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year, the second straight Wolverine to earn the award after Eitan Ben-Shitrit captured the accolade in 2023.
• Tyler Ray showed tremendous improvement in his sophomore season. His progress was most pronounced in the butterfly events, dropping nearly two seconds in the 100 fly and more than six seconds in the 200 fly from 2023 to 2024. After not making the Big Ten scoring roster his freshman season, Ray rebounded to log three top-eight individual finishes, scoring 76 points and earning All-Big Ten first-team honors. Ray followed up with two final heat qualifications at the NCAA Championships in the 100 and 200 fly, finishing 16th and 14th, respectively.
Honors and Awards
Eitan
Ben-Shitrit
Brendan
Fitzpatrick
Colin
Geer
Gal
Groumi
Ozan
Kalafat
Tyler
Ray
Bence
Szabados
Yugo
Tsukikawa
Jack
Wilkening
Logan
Zucker
NCAA:
All-America (First Team): Gal Groumi
All-America (Second Team): Eitan Ben-Shitrit, Brendan Fitzpatrick, Colin Geer, Ozan Kalafat, Tyler Ray, Bence Szabados, Jack Wilkening, Logan Zucker
CSC
Academic All-District: Eitan Ben-Shitrit, Kameron Liberman, Tyler Ray, Logan Zucker
Big Ten Conference
Big Ten Freshman of the Year: Colin Geer
All-Big Ten (First Team): Gal Groumi, Bence Szabados
All-Big Ten (Second Team): Eitan Ben-Shitrit, Brendan Fitzpatrick, Tyler Ray, Jack Wilkening
Big Ten Swimmer of the Championships: Gal Groumi
Sportsmanship Award: Yugo Tsukikawa
Academic All-Big Ten
Eitan Ben-Shitrit, So., Undeclared
Jack Callan, Sr., Sport Management BA
Juan Ceresa, Sr., Computer Science BS
Ansel Froass, Sr., Business Administration
Ryan Hume, So., Mechanical Engineering BSE
Connor Hunt, Jr., Business Administration
Ozan Kalafat, So., Business Administration
Matt Kroll, So., Aerospace Engineering BSE
Kameron Liberman, Jr., Neuroscience BS
Cameron Luarde, Jr., Biology BS
Jack Luken, So., Movement Science BS
Charlie Morici, Sr., Economics BA
Tyler Ray, So., Business Administration
Bence Szabados, Sr., Economics BA
Yugo Tsukikawa, Sr., Economics BA
Jacque Wenger, Jr., Sport Management BA
Jack Wilkening, So., Biomedical Engineering BSE
Logan Zucker, So., Business Administration
Players Mentioned
