Michigan State University
Men's Big Ten Championships
Spartans Conclude Action at Big Ten Championships
2/28/2015 12:00:00 AM | Swimming and Diving
IOWA CITY, Iowa - The men's swimming & diving team completed competition at the Big Ten Championships at the University of Iowa. The Spartans finished in 10th place with 82 points. Saturday's action was highlighted by five all-time top-10 times.
"This was a good weekend for us," said head coach Matt Gianiodis. "I am proud of our whole team and I am proud of our two seniors. I am just really happy for the team. The conference is very tough and scoring points is hard to do. But we performed well and met most of our goals for the season."
The Spartans tallied two of the three fastest times in school history in the preliminary round of the 200 backstroke. Sophomore Adam Marsh finished in 20th with the second fastest time in school history at 1:45.02. In the C finals Marsh finished in 19th with a time of 1:45.25. Sophomore Sam Hiller recorded the third-fastest time in school history in 26th place, clocking in at 1:45.85. Hiller finished the C finals in 23rd at 1:45.93. Freshman Alex Trompke finished in 40th at 1:48.96.
In the 200 breaststroke, sophomore Alec Kandt finished in 18th and recorded the second-fastest time in school history at 1:58.58. Kandt won the C finals where he improved his second-best time in school history to 1:57.06 to finish in 17th. Freshman Tal Hanani finished in 29th place and recorded the seventh-fastest time in school history at 2:00.99. Recording the ninth-fastest time was junior Ian Rodriguez, who touched the wall in 33rd place at 2:02.43. A pair of freshman recorded their fastest time at MSU, Evan Holzgen finished in 40th at 2:05.61 and Connor Lamb did in 41st at 2:07.15.
Three Spartans posted their best time at Michigan State in the 200 butterfly preliminary round. Freshman Mitch Strahlman finished in 23rd at 1:49.88. Strahlman clocked at 1:51.89 in the C Finals, finishing in 24th place. Freshman Alex Duffy recorded his best time in 25th place at 1:50.00, he also finished at 1:49.36 in the C finals taking 22nd and sophomore Ben Martin did as well in 32nd place. Junior Nate Weeks recorded a 27th place finish at 1:50.38.
Junior Jacob Moore recorded the fastest time of the year for Michigan State in the 100 freestyle this year, finishing in 39th place at 45.15. Senior Kyle Workman posted his fastest time of his career in 41st place at 45.24. Freshman Nick Leshok had his fastest time at MSU, touching the wall in 45th place at 45.35, as did fellow freshman Lachie McLeish in 49th place at 45.46. Freshman Alex Jirgens improved his best time at MSU by finishing in 58th place at 46.64. Freshman Jonathan Zofchak finished in 59th place at 48.34.
In the 1650 freestyle, sophomore Jon Burke recorded the fourth-fastest time in school history in 14th place at 15:15.87. Freshman Joe Szczupakiewicz recorded the sixth-fastest time in school history in 20th place at 15:25.76. Freshman Mitch Strahlman finished in 28th at 15:41.85, sophomore Adam Henley finished in 32nd at 15:59.54, freshman Jacob Carl finished in 33rd at 16:04.22, and senior David Zoltowski finished his career in 34th place at 16:04.71.
Michigan State finished the night taking 10th place in the 400 freestyle relay. The team of Adam Marsh, Jacob Moore, Nick Leshok, and Kyle Workman finished at 2:58.16.
The Spartans will be back in action in two weeks when the MSU divers travel to the NCAA Zone C Regional Diving Championships on March 12-14, in Columbus, Ohio.
Players Mentioned
