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The Illini shattered two records, achieved an NCAA
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Feb. 19, 2009
Ann Arbor, Mich. - The Fighting Illini Swimming and Diving team concluded Day 2 of the Big Ten Championships Thursday evening. Over the past two days the Illini have shattered two school records, achieved one NCAA "B" cut time, made seven changes to the all-time top 10 list and three changes to the 10 fastest performances list. Heading into the final swims Thursday, 95.83% of the team had achieved season-best times and 70.83% of the team swam lifetime-best times.
"I'm happy with our overall team performance so far," head coach Sue Novitsky said. "We have had a lot of lifetime and season-best times. There have been a lot of big time drops and breakthrough swims which has led to increased confidence and momentum. This is a fast meet, we just need to focus on ourselves and keep trying to get more swims at night."
Wednesday, Feb. 18
Wednesday evening during the finals of the of the 200 medley relay, freshman Laura Adrian set a new school record for her split in the 50 back with a time of 26.16. The 200 medley relay, swam by Adrian, junior Amy Johnson, freshman Brittany McGowan and sophomore Meghan Mason was also the second-fastest in school history with a time of 1:43.11.
The Fighting Illini's 800 free relay was also the sixth-fastest in school history with a time of 7:24.54. Junior Kristen Kloeckener's split of the relay was the fifth-fastest time in school history (1:49.14).
Thursday, Feb. 19
During the preliminaries for the 200 IM, senior Marissa Clapp set a new school record with a time of 2:00.03, beating her former lifetime-best time by over four seconds. Clapp's time also was a NCAA "B" cut qualifying time and earned her a final swim. In her final swim Clapp finished with a time of 2:00.27.
"It is outstanding for Marissa to get a provisional NCAA cut time," Novitsky said. "This is one of those breakthrough swims that we have been waiting for. She put two strong swims together and I'm very happy for her that she ended up getting a varsity record."
In the 200 IM prelims junior CeCe Marizu set a lifetime-best time and became the seventh-fastest person in school history with a time of 2:05.10. Junior Jen Ivarson also set a lifetime-best time in the 200 IM and became the eighth-fastest person in school history with a time of 2:05.12.
Junior Ann Miller set a lifetime-best time in the 200 IM (2:06.11) and senior Ali Keehn swam to a season-best time of 2:08.31. Freshman Michelle Mehnert also achieved a season-best time of 2:16.15.
In the 500 free prelims junior Amy Forsberg became the fourth-fastest person in school history and swam the sixth-fastest time in school history with a time of 4:53.02. Kloeckener became the fifth-fastest swimmer in school history in the 500 free with a time of 4:53.32, and swam the seventh-fastest time in school history.
Also in the 500 free prelims freshman Torrey Loper swam to a season-best time of 5:02.38. Fellow freshman April McKee swam a lifetime-best time of 5:02.86 and freshman Michelle Mehnert swam a season-best time of 5:16.57.
Adrian swam the eighth-fastest time in school history in the 50 free prelims with a time of 23.57, a lifetime-best time. Freshman Kristen Manias was close behind with a time of 23.67, the ninth-fastest time in school history and a lifetime-best time. Eight other Illini set lifetime-best times during the prelims.
During the evening session the Orange and Blue's 200 free relay became the seventh-fastest all-time with a time of 1:33.93. The relay was swam by Adrian, Mason, sophomore Sara Stoneburg and Manias.
The diving one-meter preliminaries were also held Thursday. Freshman Britni Fisher finished with a score of 191.15 and junior Nikki Spillone finished with a score of 182.80.
The Orange and Blue jump back into the pool Friday morning at 10 a.m. to compete in the preliminaries for the 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast and 100 back. The finals for those events will be held at 5 p.m. A full recap of the day's events will be available on fightingillini.com at the conclusion of competition.
