{"id":607597,"date":"2026-02-22T07:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T07:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/607597\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T07:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T07:10:11","slug":"michigan-claims-18th-big-ten-championships-crown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/607597\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan Claims 18th Big Ten Championships Crown"},"content":{"rendered":"

Site:<\/strong> Minneapolis, Minn. (Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center)

\nEvent:<\/strong> Big Ten Championships (Day 4 of 4)

\nU-M Team Result:<\/strong> 1st Place of 14 Teams (1,243 Points)

\nNext U-M Event:<\/strong> Sunday, March 1 — at Last Chance Meet, TBA<\/p>\n

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.<\/strong> — The University of Michigan women’s swimming and diving team scored 1,243 points to claim the Big Ten Championships title on Saturday (Feb. 21) at the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center. The Wolverines finished ahead of second-place Indiana (1,084 points) to earn their first conference title since 2018. This season’s victory is their 18th all-time, and the total leads all Big Ten teams.<\/p>\n

Michigan placed 12 swimmers into final heats, including eight in A finals.<\/p>\n

Bella Sims<\/a><\/strong> kicked off the final session of the meet with her second individual Big Ten title of the meet in the 200-yard IM. The junior outlasted the field and posted a time of 1:52.81. Letitia Sim<\/a><\/strong> and Devon Kitchel<\/a><\/strong> took third and fourth, respectively, in the event to round out a strong start for the Maize and Blue.<\/p>\n

Stephanie Balduccini<\/a><\/strong> placed third in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 47.20 seconds to reach the podium. Brady Kendall<\/a><\/strong> took sixth with a mark of 47.99 while Christey Liang<\/a><\/strong> finished 10th with a time of 48.40.<\/p>\n

Hannah Bellard<\/a><\/strong> successfully defended her Big Ten crown in the 200-yard butterfly by breaking the school, Big Ten and Big Ten Championship records with a time of 1:50.34. Freshman Montse Spielmann<\/a><\/strong> made her championship final debut and clocked a 1:56.34.<\/p>\n

Milla Drakopoulos<\/a><\/strong> swam her first championship final in the 200-yard backstroke and finished seventh with a time of 1:53.98.<\/p>\n

Michigan closed out the conference championship win with a silver medal in the 400-yard freestyle relay, as the team of Stephanie Balduccini<\/a><\/strong>, Lexi Greenhawt<\/a><\/strong>, Brady Kendall<\/a><\/strong> and Bella Sims<\/a><\/strong> combined to post a time of 3:07.90.<\/p>\n

Sims was named Swimmer of the Championships, the first Michigan swimmer to earn the honor since Maggie MacNeil from 2020-22.<\/p>\n

Ten Wolverines were named to the All-Big Ten team, with eight swimmers earning first-team honors.<\/p>\n

Next up, Michigan will send select swimmers to the Last Chance Meet on March 1. Locations and start times are to be announced.<\/p>\n

Final Team Standings<\/strong><\/p>\n


\n 1. No. 4 Michigan 1,243
\n 2. No. 6 Indiana 1,084
\n 3. No. 11 Ohio State 1,066
\n 4. No. 15 Wisconsin 893
\n 5. No. 12 USC 768
\n 6. No. 25 Minnesota 701
\n 7. No. 22 UCLA 605.5
\n 8. Purdue 497
\n 9. Northwestern 446
\n10. Nebraska 433.5
\n11. Rutgers 379.5
\n12. Iowa 284
\n13. Penn State 216
\n14. Illinois 195.5<\/p>\n

Swimmer of the Championships<\/strong>

\nBella Sims<\/a>, Michigan<\/p>\n

Diver of the Championships<\/strong>

\nViviana Del Angel, Minnesota<\/p>\n

All-Big Ten First Team<\/strong>

\nAlex Shackell, Indiana

\nAvery Worobel, Purdue

\nBella Sims<\/a>, Michigan

\nBrady Kendall<\/a>, Michigan

\nChristey Liang<\/a>, Michigan

\nElna Widerstrom, Minnesota

\nGena Jorgenson, Nebraska

\nGrace Hoeper, Indiana

\nHannah Bellard<\/a>, Michigan

\nKristina Paegle, Indiana

\nLeila Fack<\/a>, Michigan

\nLetitia Sim<\/a>, Michigan

\nLexi Greenhawt<\/a>, Michigan

\nLiberty Clark, Indiana

\nMaggie Wanezek, Wisconsin

\nStephanie Balduccini<\/a>, Michigan

\nVivi Del Angel, Minnesota<\/p>\n

All-Big Ten Second Team<\/strong>

\nAbby Wanezek, Wisconsin

\nBrooke Corrigan, Wisconsin

\nDaryn Wright, Purdue

\nHailey Tierney, Wisconsin

\nJonette Lagreid, Indiana

\nLena Hentschel, Ohio State

\nMackenzie Hodges, Indiana

\nMaria Ramos Najji, Ohio State

\nMila Nikanorov, Ohio State

\nMiranda Grana, Indiana

\nMya Dewitt, Indiana

\nRachel Bockrath, Ohio State

\nRosie Murphy, UCLA

\nSienna Angove, Ohio State<\/p>\n

All-Freshman Team<\/strong>

\nAdair Shaw, Ohio State

\nAlex Shackell, Indiana

\nAlisee Pisane, USC

\nBella Brito, USC

\nBrooke Corrigan, Wisconsin

\nBrooklyn Petit, Ohio State

\nCarrie Furbee, Ohio State

\nDora Molnar, USC

\nGrace Hoeper, Indiana

\nHannah Newbrook, Ohio State

\nJada Duncan, UCLA

\nJustine Delmas, Wisconsin

\nKaylee Bishop, Indiana

\nKK LeBlanc, Ohio State

\nLiberty Clark, Indiana

\nLucie Delmas, Wisconsin

\nMilla Drakopoulos<\/a>, Michigan

\nMontse Spielmann<\/a>, Michigan

\nZita Bernatsky, Iowa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Site: Minneapolis, Minn. (Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center) Event: Big Ten Championships (Day 4 of 4) U-M Team…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":607598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[1318,1317,1315,1316,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-607597","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116113036287973504","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}