The Wisconsin men’s swimming team dropped its second consecutive dual meet on Friday night, losing 142-93 to Michigan at the UW-Natatorium. The loss makes the Badgers 3-2 on the season and 1-1 in Big Ten play.
While many of the UW swimmers struggled, the team’s young divers put together their best performance of the season. Freshmen Josh Bonner captured first place on both the one-meter and three-meter boards, scoring 285.60 and 302.18, respectively. Bonner heads a class of four freshmen divers, the Badgers’ first men’s diving class in several years.
“I think I saw the divers that I recruited; things that we’d been working on all came together,” diving coach Josh Seykora said. “I think they should all be happy with their performances.”
For the swimmers, only Wisconsin senior captain Adam Mania won a race, the 50-yard freestyle, which he took with a time of 20.59 seconds.
Many races came down to the wire, including the 100-yard freestyle between Wisconsin senior Eric Weisner and Michigan junior and Olympic gold medalist Peter Vanderkaay. Vanderkaay (44.82) edged Weisner in the final strokes, winning by less than two-tenths of a second.
Vanderkaay also outlasted Weisner in the 200-yard freestyle. The Wolverine standout trailed early, but took the race by nearly a second, winning with a time of 1:38.38.
Another close finish that concluded the evening, the 400-yard freestyle relay, featured a come from behind victory by Michigan. Vanderkaay caught UW senior Tim Liebhold on the final leg to propel the Wolverines to a winning time of 3:01.16.
“One thing that I think we can improve on is those close races,” Mania said. “We’ve been taught the mentality forever that if you’re next to a guy, you just don’t let him beat you. You can’t let it happen.”
In many other races, Michigan won much more convincingly. Wisconsin head coach Eric Hansen thought his younger swimmers looked good mechanically but lacked confidence at times.
“I just thought that some kids raced with big eyes,” Hansen said. “That’s never fun to see.”
Mania said it takes time to develop a college racing mentality. He expects the younger swimmers to adapt as they gain more experience.
Despite the score, the team did see some positives to take away from the event. Mania noted that the team stuck together down the stretch and showed strong team unity. Hansen praised the diving performances, but the coaches see room for improvement in that capacity as well.
“They’re learning how to compete,” Seykora said of the divers. “Now it’s like — I’m on an adrenaline rush, how do I come down, and how do I bring that to a manageable level. I think there were some emotions up and down.”
The team returns to action at Northwestern Saturday along with the UW women, who did not compete this weekend. The dual meet will be the Badgers’ last before attending a string of invites across the country, including stops in Minnesota, Texas and Hawaii.
