BY Ryan A. Podges

Hello everyone and thanks for checking out the Daily’s live blog from Canham Natatorium and the Big Ten Conference Swimming and Diving Championships. Right now the swimmers from all ten teams (Illinois does not have a men’s swim team) are warming up.

Some pre-meet notes:

The meet will consist of morning and night sessions with the swimmers swimming preliminary races in the morning and finals and relays at night.

The last time Michigan won a Big Ten Championship was when it hosted the meet in 2003.

Although Michigan is hosting the meet again this year, the Wolverines have been preparing as if it was a road meet. During the meet, the team will stay in a hotel.

The meet is about to start, keep checking in to see the results.

500-yard Freestyle

This is one of Michigan’s best events. The Wolverines have lost the 500 only once since 1993 and hold 8 of the top 10 times ever in this event for the conference.

Gunnar Schmidt finished first in his heat and just dropped over 10 seconds from his entry time finishing with a time of 4:27.10.

Jared Miller also finished first and dropped over 10 seconds finishing 4:24.51.

Tony Wahl: 4:31.25

Christian Sprang finished first in his heat at 4:25.34

Johnny Austermann, Sal Barba, Adam DeJong and Tyler Clary are all swimming next to each other in the same heat.

250 yards (half-way) Clary leads by about half a body length. Coach Bob Bowman is jumping up and down on the pool deck and his teammates are going nuts!

50 yards left and Barba has caught up to within 0.15 seconds of Clary.

Barba touches first at 4:20.03 followed b Clary at 4:20.90. Austermann touches at 4:24.16 and DeJong at 4:24.61

In the final heat of the 500, Matt Patton finished with the fastest time in the the event this morning at 4:18.84. Charlie Houchin touches 4th at 4:21.85.

This concludes the Preliminary races for the 500, in the finals tonight Matt Patton will be seeded first at 4:18.84 followed by Sal Barba at 4:20.03. Tyler Clary will also be in the championship heat in tonight’s finals.

200-yard Individual Medley

Freshman Sam Wensman dropped over two seconds and finishes at 1:53.83

Shaun Weinberg dropped over two seconds also- 1:49.69

Michigan absolutely dominated the last 3 heats with 1st and 2nd place finishes in all three.

T.P. Patrick of Indiana just set a new meet record and secured the top seed in the finals with a time of 1:44.51.

Michigan will have 5 of the top 7 times tonight in the finals of this event. Vanderkaay, Schultz, Spann and Dauw will all be in tonight’s championship heat.

50-yard Freestyle

Jamie Martone just touched first in his heat at 20.07. This is the fastest time in the prelims so far.

Bobby Savulich just touched first in his heat with the first sub-twenty second time of the meet at 19.82

In the final heat of the prelims, Chris Brady finishes at 19.97.

There is a tie for first place seed for the finals. Kyle Bubolz and Bruno Barbic of Northwestern both swam a time of 19.66. Bobby Savulich will have the highest seed for Michigan tonight (5th) in the championship heat.

Thursday Night Finals:

Welcome back. Tonight’s finals session will be fast and exciting! The top 18 swimmers in each event will compete again- this time for points. The Wolverines preformed well in the prelims this morning. They hold the top two seeds in the 500-yard Freestyle, 4 of the top 6 seeds in the 200- yard IM and have three swimmers in the 50-yard Freestyle.

Michigan is also the only team wearing full-body swim suits. The suit is blue with a small block ‘M’ logo on the left side of the chest. The team wore the suits for the first time at a meet this morning.

200-yard Freestyle Relay

This place is loud! The meet began with the closest race of the day so far. Michigan’s relay team of Chris Brady, Bobby Savulich, Curtis Dauw and Jamie Martone just won their heat, beating Indiana by 0.01 seconds! After starting the last 50-yards of the relay ahead by 0.05 seconds, Indiana made a run for the lead, but was touched out in the end.

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