Brendan Burns, B1G Breaststroke and Six 18-Splits at Big Tens Night Four

2021 GREAT TEN MEN CHAMPIONSHIPS

TEAM SCORE (THROUGH DAY FOUR)

1. Indian – 1036.5
2. Michigan – 1010
3. Ohio State – 1000
4. Purdue – 615.5
5. Wisconsin – 571
6. Northwest – 554
7. Penn State – 496.5
8. Iowa – 444.5
9. Minnesota – 396
10. Michigan State – 149

The team race continued to spin tonight, with the first three teams and then the teams vying for fourth place, exchanging advantages back and forth. Indiana has a small advantage over Michigan and Ohio State on the final day of competition, while Purdue is ahead of Wisconsin and Northwestern.

A great story of the night came in fly 200, where the race was not competitive, but the time out of the winner Brendan Burns was. In 1: 39.22, Burns surpassed Vini Lanza’s school record and the Big Ten record, better by more than a second for Burns and his first time below 1:40.

Burns is now 9th of all time, just 0.01 ahead of Shaine Casas of Texas A&M.

The other great story tonight, which we have only noticed in the relays so far at the meeting, is the depth of the Big Ten in the breaststroke. In the final, while some swimmers added time, all eight finished in 52 seconds. Counting this morning’s preliminaries, nine Big Ten swimmers fell below the 52-second barrier this season, representing almost half of the country’s sub-52 swimmers.

Max McHugh leads the nation with its preliminary time of 50.19, while that of Michigan Will Chan he started his first time, and Michigan’s first as a program, swimming 50 points with 50.95 silver. McHugh and Chan are now 1-2 in the country, while Indiana’s Zane Backes is the fourth (51.04) and the state of Ohio Jason Mathews is the sixth (51,30).

Indiana won the 200 free relay, with Purdue making his presence known with a great deal of effort for second place there. Six men broke 19 at the start, while those from OSU Hunter Armstrong had the fastest initial leg (19,17).

200 FREE RELAY DIVISORIES

Denoted starting leg *