BLOOMINGTON – Indiana swimming and diving received three of the six available Big Ten weekly awards this cycle, the conference announced Wednesday (Nov. 22).
IU earned a men’s victory and a women’s second-place finish at their midseason meet, the Ohio State Invitational. On the men’s side, senior Jassen Yep was named the Big Ten Swimmer of the Week and Mikkel Lee was picked the as the Big Ten Freshman of the Week. Representing the women’s team, junior Skyler Liu was selected as the Big Ten Diver of the Week for the second time this season.
Liu recorded two victories and one runner-up finish in her dominant midseason showing. She also was the top qualifier in each preliminary and tallied NCAA Zone Qualifying scores from each set of dives. The junior won on the 1-meter springboard (297.25) and platform (351.00) and was second on the 1-meter board (330.65).
Yep led Indiana to sweeps of the breaststroke events, winning both the 100-yard breast and 200-yard breast. In the 200-yard event, Yep posted an NCAA A cut, pool record, meet record and the fastest time in the country this season, touching in 1:50.71. His 51.49 in the 100 breast ranks as the No. 4 time in the country and the best in the Big Ten. Yep also set Olympic Trails cuts in the 100-meter breast (1:01.65), 200-meter breast (2:13.88) and 200-meter IM (2:03.00). He was the third-place finisher in the 200-yard IM with an NCAA B cut 1:44.93.
Lee recorded a handful of top-five finishes at midseason, but his meet was highlighted by his performance in IU’s 400-yard freestyle victory. He was the only swimmer under 42 seconds in the race, going 41.66 as IU’s anchor to overtake the leader and win by seven tenths of a second. The freshman also finished third individually in the 50-yard freestyle (19.43) and fourth in the 100-yard freestyle (42.67) and was the leadoff in IU’s second-place 200-yard freestyle relay finish, splitting 19.75.
The Hoosiers are back in action December 1 when they welcome Cincinnati to the Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center for their last meet of the fall.
