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Junior Barbie Viney set a school record leading off the 800 free relay in the first day of the Big Ten Championships hosted by the Ohio State University.
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Feb. 15, 2006
Columbus, Ohio--The Fighting Illini Women's Swimming and Diving team opened up Big Ten Championships hosted by Ohio State at the Bill and Mae McCorkley Aquatic Pavilion with a seventh place finish in the 200 Medley Relay and eighth in the 800 Free Relay.
Illinois posted a 1:43.60 time in the 200-medley relay giving them a seventh place finish, improving on last year's finish and posting a best time on the year. Meghan Farrell, Kathryn Easey, Christina Brunka and anchor Rebecca Poetz rounded out the relay team.
Wisconsin finished first after crushing pool and meet records and swimming a NCAA `A' cut time of 1:38.89. The top five teams met NCAA cut times.
The Illini finished second in their heat and eighth overall in the 800 free relay in a time of 7:24.76, shattering their best time of the year set at the Ohio State Invitational by 16.61 seconds (7:41.37). In a very competitive field, the top seven teams qualified with NCAA times with first place Minnesota and second place Penn State swimming in NCAA `A' cut times.
A sport normally defined by hundredths of a second, seconds were shed today with swimmers improving on best times and school records.
With her 26.69 split in the 200 medley relay, Farrell moved up to second on the all time school record book. In starting the 800 free relay Barbie Viney set a school record in the 200 free and made the NCAA `B' cut in 1:48.16, a record set in 2002 by Jessica Aveyard. Viney has now qualified in the 50, 100 and 200 free in NCAA `B' cut time.
Last year, the Illini finished ninth and are hoping to build on that this year with preliminaries of the 500 free, 200 IM, 50 free beginning tomorrow at 10 am CT with 1-meter diving preliminaries starting at 12 pm CT. Finals start at 6 pm CT including the 200 Free Relay.
