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.
 

DANVILLE, Ill. – The Vincennes University Trailblazer baseball team began their first split four-game Mid-West Athletic Conference (MWAC) series of the season Friday afternoon at Danville Area Community College.

The Trailblazers fell in the first two games of the four-game weekend series by the score of 8-3 and 6-1.

Vincennes began the weekend series with a bang, scoring two runs in the first inning on back-to-back RBI singles by freshman Colton Evans (Henderson, Ky.) and sophomore Connor VanLannen (Clinton, Ind.).

The Jaguars quickly answered back to take the lead with three runs of their own in the bottom of the first.

Danville Area continued to add to their lead with three more runs in the second to take a 6-2 lead over the visiting Trailblazers.

Vincennes would get a run back in the fifth after a lead-off double by sophomore Colin Long (Evansville, Ind.). Long would come around to score on a groundout by Evans.

Danville Area would respond with a run in the bottom half of the inning to grow the lead back to four runs.

The Jaguars would add an insurance run in the seventh as Vincennes was unable to complete a comeback as Danville Area took game one 8-3.

Connor VanLannen got the start on the mound for the Trailblazers in game one and lasted two innings, allowing six runs on six hits, while striking out three.

Sophomore Braedon Nichols (Sullivan, Ind.) entered out of the bullpen to throw three and two-thirds innings, allowing one run on four hits, while punching out a pair of batters.

Freshmen Konner Thyen (Huntingburg, Ind.), Cauy Motsinger (Salem, Ind.) and sophomore Camden Greer (Boonville, Ind.) finished the remaining two and one-third innings, combining to allow one run without allowing a hit, while striking out four batters.

Vincennes got a good day at the plate from lead-off batter Ethan Burdette (Linton, Ind.) who came through with three hits on five at-bats, including a double in the second inning.

Colin Long also came through with a pair of hits, scoring two runs and stealing a base.

Danville Area continued the momentum into game two, jumping out to an early lead with a three-run home run in the second and a two-run home run in the fourth lead 5-0 midway through the seven-inning game.

VU was able to get on the scoreboard in the fifth when Colton Evans drove in Colin Long for the third time Friday with an RBI single to cut the deficit to 5-1.

The Jaguars would quickly get that run back in the bottom of the fifth, as Danville Area went on to take game two by the score of 6-1 and take the first two games of the series.

Vincennes turned to freshman Dawson Blaylock (Eaton, Ohio) as the game two starter. Blaylock threw three and two-thirds innings, allowing five runs on seven hits and striking out one.

The VU bullpen again slowed down the Danville hitters, with freshmen Eli Steimel (Sullivan, Ind.) and Caleb Moore (Wentzville, Mo.) and sophomore Luke Osborn (Perryville, Ind.) combined to throw two and one-third innings, allowing one run on one hit, with Moore and Osborn each recording a strikeout.

Sophomore Peyton Lane (New Paris, Ohio) had a good game at the plate in game two, hitting three for four, including a double in the seventh.

“It all starts on the bump and unfortunately for the first time in a long time Connor just didn’t have it today,” VU Head Baseball Coach Chris Barney said. “He’s been solid all year for us, so I’m sure he will rebound the next time he goes out. But the bullpen did a great job for us. They responded and pitched well, whether it was Nichols, Konner Thyen did a good job for four hitters, Motsinger and Greer all threw really well.”

“In the second game it was the same thing,” Barney added. “The bullpen did a good job. Unfortunately Danville strung together a few hits and got a big blast to go up 3-0 and got another blast, but our bullpen again did fine. Offensively we just have to do a better job of stringing it together. Then we just have to keep the momentum on our side, every time we score, they found a way to grab it back and put a run or more across the plate. So, hats off to Danville. Their second game starter was pretty good.”

“They are just doing exactly what they need to be doing,” Barney said of the hitting performances of Burdette, Long and Lane. “We’ve just got to find a way to string them together and come up with some big hits behind them. We had some opportunities early in game one to blow things open and we left guys on base and we had some more opportunities later in the game but we weren’t able to string hits together in a row like we did last weekend.”

The Trailblazers will return home to Jerry Blemker Field Sunday, April 3 for the final two games of the series looking for the series split.

First pitch Sunday is set for 2 p.m. eastern, with sophomore Kestler Harbuck (Brooksville, Fla.) set to start game three and the game four starter still to be announced.

“Our goal right now is to come back home and get a split out of the series and go 2-2 on the weekend and return the favor to them,” Barney said. “We’ve got Harbuck on the mound for game three and to be announced for game four, but we feel good about it. Our bullpen is in great shape. We didn’t overthrow anybody today, so everyone should be available and ready to roll on Sunday with the day off tomorrow.”

“We’ve just got to jump on them early and sustain it,” Barney added. “We need to continue to do a great job defensively like we have and then our starters need to hopefully get us into the sixth or seventh innings.”

Pensacola, Fl.: After a strong performance despite a loss the night prior, Chris Janzen stopped 31 of 32 shots faced for his first professional victory in net as the Thunderbolts defeated the Ice Flyers 4-1 in Pensacola on Friday night. The Thunderbolts next home game will be on Thursday, April 7^th at 7:00pm CST as they host the Vermilion County Bobcats. For tickets, call (812)422-BOLT (2658), buy online at EvansvilleThunderbolts.com, or buy tickets in person at the Ford Center Box Office.

Derek Osik opened the scoring for Evansville with a power play goal at the 7:24 mark of the first period, assisted by Hayden Hulton and Connor Chatham.  Following a successful 4-minute penalty kill early in the second period, Brennan Feasey scored to double Evansville’s lead to 2-0 at the 7:25 mark, assisted by Osik.  Later in the period, Chatham scored on a two-on-two rush from Feasey to extend Evansville’s lead to 3-0 at the 13:19 mark.  In the third period, the Ice Flyers got on the board with a shorthanded goal from Brennan Blaszczak, but Janzen and the Thunderbolts shut down Pensacola’s attack down the stretch, and Feasey added a late empty net goal to seal the 4-1 victory for Evansville.

Feasey scored two goals and one assist, while Chatham and Osik finished with a goal and assist each.  Chris Janzen stopped 31 of 32 shots faced for his first professional win.  The Thunderbolts and Ice Flyers meet again on Saturday night in Pensacola.