The University of Wisconsin men’s and women’s swim and dive teams wrapped up the Big Ten Championship meet, with the women finishing fourth overall and the men finishing sixth. The women’s team ended the season with a 6-1 record behind their seven seniors, with two school records set — one in the 200 medley relay and one in the individual 200 butterfly (set by senior Mackenzie McConagha).
The men’s team finished 3-2, led by their six seniors. The swim and dive teams also saw a record-breaking crowd of 968 at Soderholm Family Aquatic Center in their early November win versus the rival University of Minnesota.
Women’s swim and dive
The Badger women competed in the Big Ten Championship meet first, scoring a total of 849 points and finishing in fourth place for the fourth consecutive year. The team had multiple stand-out swims, including breaking a school record. The 200, 400 and 800 freestyle relays finished fifth, with a record-breaking swim in the 400 by junior Abby Wanezek, sophomore Hailey Tierney and seniors Abby Carlson and Lily Gardner, with a time of 3:14.53. The 200 medley relay finished in third place and the 400 medley relay finished in second place (team of freshman Maggie Wanezek, junior Hazal Ozkan, graduate student Phoebe Bacon and Abby Wanezek).
Moving on to the individual events, the women’s swim team had 11 individual swims finish in the top six. Tierney finished fourth in the 50 freestyle, Carlson finished fourth in the 200 freestyle and senior Paige McKenna finished fifth in the 1650 freestyle. Bacon swept the backstroke events — the 100 and 200 — and Maggie Wanezek followed suit finishing fifth in the 200. Ozkan finished sixth and fourth in the 100 and 200 breaststroke, respectively. McConagha, the Wisconsin record holder in this event, finished third in the 200 butterfly.
Bacon also finished first in the 200 individual medley, followed by fellow graduate student Cal Dunn, who finished fifth in the 400 individual medley. Ten women qualified for the NCAA championships — Carlson, Abby Wanezek, Bacon, Tierney, junior Blair Stoneburg, Maggie Wanezek, Dunn, McConagha, McKenna and Ozkan and sophomore diver Ryane Neal qualified for the Zone Diving Championships.
Two-time Olympian Bacon had a dominant performance for Wisconsin at the Big Ten Championship, winning all three individual events she was entered in, as well as contributing to a silver and bronze medal for the team in two relays. This will be Bacon’s last season with the Badgers, but she is forever grateful for her time at Wisconsin.
“Although it was my last Big Tens it will not change the fact that I am a Badger and will forever be a Badger,” Bacon said.
Bacon was awarded Swimmer of the Championships, an award she also won in 2024. She also achieved the meet-high point, scoring 96 of the Badgers’ 849 points.
Bacon is one of the 10 girls who qualified for the NCAA Championships and is looking forward to competing with and cheering for her fellow Badgers in her last meet in red and white. She will also be looking to repeat as the National Champion in the 200 backstroke.
She also took time to appreciate her teammates and her support system, stating the best part of the meet wasn’t the accolades and medals.
“[It was] looking over to where the team and badger parents were sitting and being able to wave, throw up a W and smile,” Bacon said.
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Men’s swim and dive
The men’s team had an impressive showing to close out the Big Ten Championships, scoring a total of 798 points and finishing sixth overall. Another relay school record was broken for the men’s team, as well as an individual record at the meet.
The 200 freestyle relay team consisting of junior Taiko Torepe-Ormsby, junior Cooper Scharff, senior Ben Wiegand and senior Chris Morris set a team record with a time of 1:15.02, finishing in an impressive second place. The 400 and 800 freestyle relays finished seventh and sixth, respectively. The 200-medley relay finished in fourth place and the 400-medley relay finished in seventh place.
Individually, the Badgers did just as well, with multiple top-six finishes. 2024 Olympian Torepe-Ormsby finished ninth in the 100 freestyle and Morris finished fifth in the 200. Junior Charlie Jones set a school record in the 200 butterfly with a time of 1:42.41 in the preliminary heats and ultimately finished seventh in the event. Junior Dominik Mark Torok finished fourth in the 400-individual medley. Morris ended the season with a bang, setting a team record in the 200 individual medley at the Minnesota Last Chance meet before NCAAs.
In diving, Wisconsin native Jan Lanser finished 17th in both the 1-meter and the 3-meter springboard. Nine men qualified for the NCAA Championships — Torepe-Ormsby, Scharff, Morris, freshman Yoav Romano, Jones, Torok, freshman Sam Lorenz, Wiegand, sophomore Luukas Vainio and diver Lanser qualified for the Zone Diving Championships.
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The NCAA qualifying teams will be heading to Seattle, Washington, to compete at the championship meet at Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center. The women’s meet will be held from March 19-22 and the men’s will follow from March 26-29. The women are seeded in the top ten five times, from Bacon (3), Wanezek and the 400 medley relay. The men are seeded in the top ten in the 200-free relay.
In 2024, the Badger women finished 15th overall, with Bacon winning gold in the 200 backstroke, and the men finished 31st. The Wisconsin men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams look to close out their record-breaking 2024-2025 season on a high note at the NCAA Championship meet at the end of March, behind their all-time great, Bacon, in her last meet for the school and the rest of the Badger team.