INDIANAPOLIS – If swimming the 200-yard backstroke and 200-yard butterfly on the same day does not catch the eye, fifth-year senior Brendan Burns qualified for the championship final in each event Saturday (March 30) at the 2024 NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships inside the IU Natatorium.
Burns has won that double at the Big Ten Championships three times – he’s the only men’s swimmer in the conference ever to do it – but had not swum the pair at an NCAA Championships until Saturday, his final meet day as a collegiate swimmer. He will enter the evening as the No. 6 seed in the 200 back and the No. 8 in the 200 fly. Outside lanes shouldn’t bother Burns – he won his second-straight 100-yard backstroke title from lane one on Friday.
Burns is one of two Hoosiers in the 200 fly final. He’ll swim across the pool from senior Tomer Frankel, who finished second in the 100-yard event on Friday. Frankel was fifth in the 200 fly last year and was the only athlete to finish top-five in both events.
IU sits No. 4 in the team race with 247 points through three days at the national meet, behind third place Florida (273 points) and in front of fifth-place NC State (206). Indiana will send 10 Hoosiers to finals, with seven of those advancing to championship heats, and has the No. 9-seeded 400-yard freestyle relay.
Indiana is guaranteed between 36 and 53 points from the platform diving event, qualifying all three divers for the championship final. The Hoosiers have already scored 72 points from the two springboard events and will eclipse their 2023 total of 104 diving points, which was 32.5 points better than any other program.
Junior Carson Tyler (465.20) and sophomore Maxwell Weinrich (437.05) were the top-two qualifiers, and junior Quinn Henninger (385.00) snuck in with a seventh-place finish. Tyler – the reigning NCAA Champion in the event – and Henninger have accounted for four of the six medals already won at these championships.
Senior Jassen Yep reached his first NCAA championship final in the 200-yard breaststroke one day after his first national final in the 100 breasts consolation heat. Yep posted a 1:51.15 Saturday morning but was 1:50.40 when he won the Big Ten title earlier this month. Classmate Maxwell Reich will swim his first NCAA final after dropping a personal best 1:51.71 to advance to the B final.
Senior Rafael Miroslaw entered the day as the No. 47 seed in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 42.54 but managed to trim 88 hundredths of a second off his season best to rank No. 15 in prelims with a 41.66 – just short of his 41.63 lifetime best. Miroslaw has beat projections all week, qualifying for the 500 free B final and the 200 free A final with career-best times.
Senior Tristan DeWitt will race the second of five heats in the 1,650-yard freestyle as the No. 30-seeded swimmer in the event. His race will begin at 4:07 p.m. ET.
RESULTS
200 BACKSTROKE
6. Brendan Burns – 1:38.18 (Championship Final, All-America, Career Best)
- Kai van Westering – 1:39.27 (Consolation Final, Second-Team All-America, Career Best)
100 FREESTYLE
- Rafael Miroslaw – 41.66 (Consolation Final, Second-Team All-America)
t47. Luke Barr – 42.56 (Career Best)
200 BREASTSTROKE
- Jassen Yep – 1:51.15 (Championship Final, All-America)
- Maxwell Reich – 1:51.71 (Consolation Final, Second-Team All-America, Career Best)
- Toby Barnett – 1:53.35 (Second Alternate)
- Josh Matheny
200 BUTTERFLY
- Tomer Frankel – 1:40.38 (Championship Final, All-America)
- Brendan Burns – 1:40.40 (Championship Final, All-America)
PLATFORM
- Carson Tyler – 465.20 (Championship Final, All-America)
- Maxwell Weinrich – 437.05 (Championship Final, All-America)
- Quinn Henninger – 385.00 (Championship Final, All-America)
HOOSIER ALL-AMERICANS
Luke Barr (200 IM*)
Finn Brooks (200 medley relay, 100 butterfly*)
Brendan Burns (200 medley relay, 800 freestyle relay, 100 backstroke, 400 medley relay, 200 backstroke, 200 butterfly)
Tomer Frankel (200 medley relay, 800 freestyle relay, 200 freestyle relay*, 100 butterfly, 400 medley relay, 200 butterfly)
Quinn Henninger (1-meter, 3-meter, platform)
Mikkel Lee (200 medley relay, 200 freestyle relay*)
Josh Matheny (100 breaststroke, 400 medley relay)
Rafael Miroslaw (800 freestyle relay, 500 freestyle*, 200 freestyle relay*, 200 freestyle, 400 medley relay, 100 freestyle*)
Maxwell Reich (200 breaststroke*)
Carson Tyler (1-meter, 3-meter, platform)
Kai van Westering (800 freestyle relay, 200 backstroke*)
Maxwell Weinrich (3-meter*, platform)
Gavin Wight (200 freestyle relay*)
Jassen Yep (100 breaststroke*, 200 breaststroke)
* – Denotes second-team All-America
