 BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – For the first time in school history, both Indiana University men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams captured the Big Ten Championship in the same season.
The Hoosier men won the team’s 27th Big Ten title and third-straight conference crown, a feat not accomplished since 1983-85. The IU women’s squad won the team’s sixth Big Ten championship, the first for the team since 2011.
At the conference championships, the two Indiana teams combined to win 20 Big Ten titles and 38 medals overall – both league-best totals. The Hoosiers combined to win six of the 10 relays at the Big Ten Championships and three of the six diving events.
Individually, Vini Lanza became the first man in Big Ten history to be named Swimmer of the Championships for the third-straight season. The senior won five conference titles on the week, along with a pair of silver medals.
The Hoosiers also had a pair of divers earn the highest honor possible in the Big Ten, as both Jessica Parratto and James Connor were named Diver of the Championships. Parratto won the 1-meter and platform dives, as well as a bronze medal in the 3-meter. Connor made the most of his week, taking gold in his two events, the 1-meter and 3-meter dives. On the men’s side, IU has had the Diver of the Championships six of the last eight seasons.
Indiana also had a league-best 15 swimmers and divers named First-Team All-Big Ten, three more than Michigan.
Lilly King ended her Big Ten career with three more league titles, winning both the 100 and 200 breaststroke events for the fourth-straight time. King also helped Indiana win the women’s 200 medley relay for the second-straight year. In her gold medal win in the 100 breast, King broke all the records, posting the fastest time in history with a mark of 55.88.
Combined, the Hoosiers set one American record, one NCAA record, three Big Ten records, six Big Ten Meet records, seven school records, and six pool records. The teams also amassed an impressive 14 NCAA A cuts, 186 NCAA B cuts, 31 NCAA Zones qualifying scores and recorded 136 career-best performances.
Up next for the Indiana University men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams will be the NCAA Championships later this month in Austin, Texas.
The No. 2-ranked Hoosier men will look to build on a tremendous showing at the 2018 NCAA Championships, where the team won four NCAA titles en route to a third-place finish, the best for the program in 43 years. For the third-straight season, Indiana finished as the top Big Ten team at the NCAA Championships – the best stretch for IU since accomplishing the feat for 15-straight seasons from 1964-78.
On the women’s side, King will look to win her fourth-straight NCAA crown in both the 100 and 200 breaststroke events. As a team in 2018, the Hoosiers (8th Place) posted the program’s third-straight top-10 finish at the NCAA Championships for the first time since accomplishing the feat from 2008-10. The top-10 finish was the ninth in school history.
Be sure to keep up with all the latest news on the Indiana men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams on social media – Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
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Scott Burns
