MINNEAPOLIS – Repeat Big Ten Champion Indiana men’s swimming and diving team ready to compete on the national stage.
This week, the No. 6-ranked Hoosiers will look to build on their momentum with 13 qualified student-athletes and all five relays competing at the 2023 NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships inside the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center in Knoxville, Tennessee.
The action kicks off Wednesday night and runs through Saturday (March 22-25). Streaming is available via the ESPN Plus digital platform.
The 200-yard medley relay and 800-yard freestyle relay will be contested on Wednesday night, kicking off the meet. IU is the No. 13 seed in the medley relay after swimming a 1:23.52 at the Big Ten Championships and taking bronze. The program record is a second faster, set at the 2022 conference meet in 1:22.51. IU’s 800 freestyle relay is ranked No. 6 in the country after winning gold at Big Tens in 6:10.80.
Thursday is the first full day with a preliminary session beginning at 10 a.m. CT. Sophomore Luke Barr gets the individual swims started in the 200 IM (1:43.14) leading into the 50 free, where the Hoosiers have four swimmers. Senior Van Mathias leads the group as the No. 13 seed with a 19.00 that won the Big Ten title, followed by junior Gavin Wight (19.26) and sophomores Finn Brooks (19.39) and Rafael Miroslaw (19.46).
Day two also marks the first day of diving. Four Indiana divers qualified for all three events, beginning with the 1-meter springboard on Thursday. Sophomore Carson Tyler was the Big Ten Champion in the event as redshirt senior Andrew Capobianco earned silver, sophomore Quinn Henninger also reached the podium in sixth and freshman Maxwell Weinrich earned max points from the consolation final in ninth.
IU is the No. 12 seed in Thursday’s final event, the 200-yard freestyle relay. Mathias, Wight, Brooks and Miroslaw won the Big Ten title in the event with a 1:16.29, about nine tenths short of the program record set in 2019.
Junior Tomer Frankel, Brooks and senior Brendan Burns start IU’s day Friday in the 100 fly. Frankel finished fifth at the 2022 national meet with a career-best 44.38 while Burns was ninth in 44.54. This season at Big Tens, Frankel (44.66) and Brooks (44.38) earned silver and bronze, respectively. Next up in the 200 free, Miroslaw owns the No. 10 time in the country coming in with a 1:32.10 set at Big Tens and owns a career-best 1:31.89 from a 2022 conference meet relay split.
The 100-yard breaststroke is Indiana’s most loaded event with five athletes competing. Mathias (51.32) and sophomore Josh Matheny (51.50) are the Nos. 11 and 13 seeds backed up by junior Jassen Yep (52.05), Barr (52.68) and junior Maxwell Reich (52.84).
Burns will swim his second event Friday in the 100 back, in which he is seeded No. 4 with a 44.65. A year ago, he was the runner-up in the event with a program record 44.15, faster than the top-seeded swimmer in this year’s meet.
Capobianco will try for his third NCAA title on the 3-meter springboard after medaling three times and earning four first-team All-America honors in the event this far in his career.
IU’s 400 medley relay quartet of Burns, Matheny, Frankel and Miroslaw approached the program record (2:59.70) in 2022 while capturing silver at the national championships with a 3:00.76. The same four earned gold at this year’s conference meet in 3:01.53. The relay will certainly challenge for the national title as the No. 4 seed coming in.
The final individual swimming event highlights IU’s final day as Burns defends his 2023 NCAA title in the 200-yard butterfly. He enters the week as the No. 2 seed after winning his fourth straight Big Ten 200 fly title in 1:39.51, though he swam a program record 1:38.71 to win the national title last year.
Leading into the 200 fly, Indiana has four athletes seeded in both the 100 free and 200 breast. Mathias leads the way in the 100 free as the No. 8 seed (41.58), followed by Miroslaw (42.38), Wight (42.75) and Brooks (43.07). Matheny is 11th in the 200 breast (1:51.23), with Yep (1:52.33), Reich (1:52.35) and Barr (1:54.37) behind.
IU’s four divers will close things out in the platform diving event. At Big Tens, Tyler, Henninger, Capobianco and Weinrich finished first, second, third and fifth in a dominant performance.
The meet will conclude with the 400-yard freestyle relay, IU’s third top-10 relay. Mathias, Wight, Frankel and Miroslaw wrapped up IU’s Big Ten title with a victory in the event, going 2:47.11. That time is just a second off the program record.
