Men’s Swim & Dive Ready for Big Ten Championships

Wednesday, February 24

West Lafayette, IN

6:30 PM

Indiana University

Big Ten Championships- Finals

Men’s Swim & Dive Ready for Big Ten Championships

2/23/2016 1:58:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The Indiana men's swimming and diving team will head north to West Lafayette, Ind. this week looking to win the program's 25^th conference title at the 2016 Big Ten Championships.

The four-day meet will begin with on Wednesday night at 6:30 p.m. On Thursday through Saturday, the teams will swim a preliminary session in the morning at 11 a.m. with the championship session to follow at 6:30 p.m.

Live results for the swimming events can be found at IUHoosiers.com. Live results for the diving events this week can be found at DiveMeets.com. For more information on the Men's Big Ten Championship, including a schedule of events, fans can click HERE.

Scouting the Hoosiers
Indiana enters this week's Big Ten Championships ranked No. 8 in the nation in the latest CSCAA/TYR Top 25 poll. Michigan is the only B1G team ranked higher than the Hoosiers in the poll, checking in at No. 5. Wisconsin is ranked No. 16, Minnesota No. 25 and Iowa is receiving votes.

During the dual meet season, IU posted an impressive record of 8-7 against one of the more difficult schedules in the nation. IU went 2-1 against Big Ten competition, beating Wisconsin and Purdue, but falling to Michigan.

"The Big Ten conference is the best in the NCAA," IU head swimming coach Ray Looze said. "It's now time to test ourselves at the highest conference level to get prepared for the riggers the NCAA presents. We can't wait to watch our men compete as a team, fight together for one cause and pursue our Big Ten goal of winning this illustrious conference."

Indiana won three diving titles last season, with James Connor winning both the 3-meter and platform dives and Michael Hixon winning the 1-meter dive. This season, however, both Connor and Hixon are taking Olympic redshirt years and will not participate in the Big Ten Championships.

"We are looking forward to men's Big Ten Championships this week," assistant coach Kelly Gufford remarked. "We do lose Michael Hixon and James Connor to Olympic redshirts this year, however, Joshua Arndt and Cody Coldren are going to bring it this week. They've had great training leading up to this and they are ready. We are expecting big things from both of them."

Big Ten Championship History
The Indiana men's swimming and diving team has won 24 conference championships in program history. The Hoosiers 24 team titles are the second-most in in the Big Ten, ranking only behind Michigan's 39. IU has placed in the top-three at the Big Ten's the last five years, including three runner-ups.

2015 Big Ten Championships
Last year at the Big Ten Championships in Iowa City, Iowa, the Hoosiers placed third overall with a total of 551 points. Michigan captured the team title, with Ohio State finishing just ahead of IU.

Indiana totaled nine medals last season, winning three gold, four silver and two bronze medals. The Hoosiers had nine student-athletes make the All-Big Ten teams. Connor and Hixon were named First-Team All-Big Ten, while Ali Khalafalla, Tanner Kurz, Sam Lorentz, Steve Schmuhl, Anze Tavcar and Yianni Thermos were named Second-Team All-Big Ten.

Indiana's Kurz was named Co-Big Ten Freshman of the Year after winning the silver medal in the 200 breast and finishing eighth overall in the 100 breast.

Weekly Big Ten Honors
The Hoosiers' Blake Pieroni won Big Ten Swimmer of the Week three times this season, while Ali Khlafalla was also named Swimmer of the Week once this year. Joshua Arndt was named B1G Diver of the Week once, while Vini Lanza was named Freshman of the Week on February 3.

@IUSwimAndDive
Be sure to keep up with all the latest news on the Indiana women's swimming and diving teams on social media – Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.