Michigan stayed the course after taking an early first-place lead in the men’s swimming and diving Big Ten Championships in Iowa City, Iowa, Saturday night.
Ohio State finished second in the four-day event with 552.5 team points, 186 points behind the leader. Indiana and Minnesota tallied 549 and 403, respectively.
The Buckeyes were led by title-winners junior Jason Schnur, in the 50 and 100 freestyles, and senior Andrew Elliott, in the 200 backstroke.
Schnur and Elliott broke school records in the preliminaries Saturday morning.
The 200 breaststroke was dominated by Indiana’s sophomore Cody Miller with a 1:54.07 swim. Miller broke his own record which gave him the title last year.
Freshman Chris Cowley was the only Buckeye to score points in that event, placing 16th.
OSU sophomores Shane Miszkiel and Christian Holstein took first and second place, respectively, in the one-meter dive Friday night. Miszkiel’s dive marked his first Big Ten title.
Michigan took the 400 individual medley, 100 butterfly and 200 freestyle to expand its lead on OSU.
The 200 freestyle relay team also posted a record-breaking time of 1:17.70 Thursday with performances from Schnur, senior Lincoln Fahrbach, junior Zach Holmes and junior Zach Birnbrich.
Although the OSU relay team’s performance was enough to land in the school’s history books, Iowa placed first in the event, edging the Buckeyes by .09 seconds.
Sophomore Alex Miller and senior Brent Hitchcock placed seventh and eighth, respectively, in the 500 freestyle competition, while junior Luke Stirton finished ninth with a time of 4:20.63.
In the opening day of competition, the Buckeyes swam into third in the 200 medley relay behind Michigan and Penn State.
OSU and Michigan were separated by .04 seconds.
OSU improved from its third place performance last season. In 2010, they claimed the Big Ten title for the first time since 1956.
The Buckeyes return to the pool Sunday in the Last Ditch NCAA Qualifier at the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion. The meet will give participating athletes a final opportunity to qualify for the 2012 NCAA Championships held March 22-24 in Seattle, Wash.
