IUSD Dominates Big Ten Postseason Awards

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana swimming and diving was heavily represented in the Big Ten postseason awards as the Hoosiers hauled in five of the eight honors available, the conference office announced on Tuesday (March 29).
 
The Big Ten Champion men’s team won three awards, with junior swimmer Brendan Burns and redshirt senior diver Andrew Capobiancosweeping the athlete honors and IU head swimming coach Ray Looze earning Big Ten Men’s Swimming Coach of the Year.
 
IU also swept the women’s diving awards, as head diving coach Drew Johansen earned Big Ten Women’s Diving Coach of the Year. NCAA Platform national champion Tarrin Gilliland was picked as the league women’s diver of the year.
 
Big Ten Women’s Diving Coach of the Year: Drew Johansen
 
Chosen the CSCAA Women’s Diving Coach of the Year a week ago, Drew Johansen earned his third-career Big Ten coach of the year award and first on the women’s side.
 
Johansen led the IU women’s diving trio of sophomores Tarrin Gilliland and Anne Fowler and senior Kristen Hayden to a combined seven All-America honors, three medals and 84 points at the national meet. In the 3-meter, Hayden and Gilliland placed second and third, respectively, before Gilliland captured the Platform national title one night later.
 
In February, the Hoosier ladies won three medals at the Big Ten Championships.
 
Big Ten Women’s Diver of the Year: Tarrin Gilliland
 
Tarrin Gilliland is the first Hoosier to be named Big Ten Women’s Diver of the Year since IU athletes claimed the award six times between 2003 and 2009. It’s Gilliland’s first time winning the award through just her sophomore season.
 
Gilliland repeated as the NCAA’s Platform diving national champion, scoring a 372.95 in the final. For the second straight season, she posted first team All-America performances in all three events at the national meet. Gilliland also won bronze in the 3-meter dive.
At the conference meet, Gilliland was crowned the Big Ten Platform diving champion for the first time this year with a career-best 382.80. She was also a bronze medalist on the 3-meter springboard.
 
Big Ten Men’s Swimming Coach of the Year: Ray Looze
 
After leading the Hoosier men to their fourth conference title in six years and third top-five finish in four full seasons at the national meet, Ray Looze was named the Big Ten Coach of the Year for the 11th time in his career. It’s Looze’s sixth such award for the men’s program.
 
At the national meet, the Hoosiers were the highest placing Big Ten team with 265 points, 100 points more than the next-best conference rival, Ohio State. During the week, Indiana swimmers broke three program records and captured 32 All-America honors.
 
In the fifth Big Ten Championship during Looze’s tenure, Indiana swimmers tallied 14 medals. Two of IU’s relays, the 800 freestyle and 400 medley, won gold.
 
The Hoosier men finished the regular season 9-0 to extend a stretch of 15th straight dual meet wins that goes back to 2019.
 
Big Ten Men’s Swimmer of the Year: Brendan Burns
 
Brendan Burns earned a laundry list of accolades during his junior season, capped with his first-career national championship coming in the 200 Butterfly. Burns set a program record and posted the fifth-best time in American history, 1:38.71, for IU’s first 200 fly title since 1973.
 
Burns also set a program record in the 100 Backstroke (44.15) and with his teammates in IU’s 400 Medley Relay (3:00.76) at the national meet to earn silver in both. He also placed ninth in the 100 fly.
 
In February, Burns was the Big Ten Swimmer of the Championships for the second consecutive year after claiming gold in all five races he swam in. As an individual, Burns won conference titles in the 100-and-200 back races and 200 fly, then boosted the champion 800 free and 400 medley relays.
 
Burns won four Big Ten Men’s Swimmer of the Week awards throughout the season, bringing his career total to five.
 
Big Ten Men’s Diver of the Year: Andrew Capobianco
 
For the second straight season, Andrew Capobianco was named the Big Ten Men’s Diver of the Year.
 
Capobianco was the first diver to complete the Big Ten triple since Olympian David Boudia in 2011, winning gold in all three events at the conference meet. For the feat, Capobianco was named the Big Ten Diver of the Championships for a second straight year.
 
The redshirt senior carried his success into the NCAA meet, where he earned silver in each of the springboard events before placing ninth on the Platform to close his season. Behind Burns’ 46, Capobianco had the second-most points of any Hoosier at the meet, scoring 43 towards IU’s fifth-place finish in Atlanta.