Michigan wins record 12th national championship in men's swimming and diving

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Your move Michigan men's basketball team. Your swimming and diving counterparts just raised the bar for performance of the weekend and bested Ohio State along the way.

Michigan's Connor Jaeger won the 1,650-yard freestyle Saturday night to wrap up the Wolverines' first NCAA men's swimming and diving team title since 1995.

It is the swimming and diving team's 12th national title all time, which is tops in the nation, the Wolverines were previously tied with Ohio State for first with 11.

Though Michigan came into the weekend as the top-ranked team in the nation, head coach Mike Bottom said he didn't think the championship was possible.

"We didn't have a real confidence that we would win this," Bottom said.

Michigan led from start to finish of the three-day event held at the IU Natatorium in Indianapolis. Michigan's 1995 championship was won in the same venue.

"By the second day I looked at our team and I said, 'All right we've gotten in the top three, now what do you want to do?" They looked at me like I was crazy. They looked at me and said, 'We came here to win.'"

Jaeger finished in 14 minutes, 27.18 seconds, while the Wolverines' Sean Ryan finished fourth, Ryan Feeley sixth and Anders Nielsen ninth.

"I was not thinking about a time, just racing and enjoying the race, too," Jaeger said. "The coaches have been great about not putting any pressure on us. The team understood that we're having a really special year and we're just letting our passion drive us."

The Wolverines finished second in the final event, the 400 freestyle relay. Southern California won the relay in 2:48.33. The Wolverines celebrated the win with a traditional leap into the pool, including the fully clothed coaches, and by singing The Victors.

Jaeger's win was his second national title of the weekend after he won the 500 freestyle championship on Thursday.

"The first 100, I think I was sixth or something," Jaeger said on Thursday. "People like to go for it from the start and I just don't have speed like that. A little antsy in the beginning, you want to start pushing it, but I talked it over with my coach and I was just going to stay relaxed the first 100 and then work. So, that's what we did and it worked out.

"Just stoked (the last 25 yards). I took a breath and actually saw the team going nuts and that got me excited. I was falling apart, just trying to get to the wall. Just thinking about that."

Michigan finished with 480 points. Two-time defending champion California was second at 406.5, and Arizona was third with 313.5.

Michigan celebrated the victory as a team with a traditional leap into the pool, including the fully clothed coaches, and by singing the victors.

Bottom, in his fifth year as head coach of the Wolverines, was named national coach of the year. This year's seniors were the first class recruited by Bottom at Michigan.

"You do it one day at a time and one student-athlete at a time," Bottom said. "We started out with one recruiting class that we were scrambling on and these are the guys."

Along with Jaeger's two national titles, Miguel Ortiz, Bruno Ortiz, Sean Fletcher and Zachary Turk won the 200-yard individual medley relay for Michigan. A total of 14 total Michigan swimmers earned 38 All-America honors between them. Michigan earned an additional 11 honorable mentions.