Illinois
The Fighting Illini swimming and diving team wrapped up the Missouri Invitational Saturday night in record-breaking fashion. Freshman Raquel Corniuk and sophomore Gabbie Stecker highlighted the day’s events, setting Illinois school records in platform diving and the 200 fly, respectfully. The Illini set a total of 68 lifetime bests over the course of the three-day competition.
“Overall this was a total team effort and a strong performance from the very first race on Thursday,” head coach Sue Novitsky said. “The energy and enthusiasm that these ladies brought to the pool was contagious and we just kept feeding off of each other’s performances to keep the momentum going.”
After all three days of competition the Illini finished in fourth place with a total of 506 points. Missouri claimed victory with 1,118 points followed by Florida International (585), Nebraska (513), Illinois (506), Drury University (424), West Virginia (382), New Mexico (227), Northern Colorado (104) and UNLV (38).
“As a team we kept our focus and continued to do the little things to keep recovering and preparing for the next event,” Novitsky said. “We made a run for third, but fell a couple points short.”
In the afternoon’s 1650 free race, senior Kayla Dlugopolski placed third for the Orange and Blue with a time of 16:55.60, making her the ninth-fastest Illini in history in the event.
Junior Sloane McDermott claimed eighth in the first final of the night in the 200 back (2:01.84). Earlier in the prelims McDermott had recorded a time of 2:00.98, a lifetime best which ranks her sixth on Illinois’ fastest individuals list in the event. Her sister Callan McDermott finished in 12th with a time of 2:02.96, a new personal best for the Illini senior.
In the 100 free, senior Alison Meng placed eighth overall with a lifetime best time of 50.65. Meng now moves up to fifth on Illinois’ fastest individuals list in the event. Freshman Gabrielle Bethke placed 14th, finishing in a lifetime best time of 51.39.
Freshman Samantha Stratford finished fifth in the 200 breast and recorded a time of 2:15.41, an NCAA B cut time that ranks her as the fifth-fastest individual in the event in Illinois history. Junior Jennifer Coady also broke into the fastest performers list with a time of 2:17.69, earning eighth place in both the race and on the school’s all-time performers list.
In the 200 fly, Gabbie Stecker broke her own school record with a fourth place finish of 2:00.21. Stecker is now the owner of the three fastest performances in the event in school history. Freshman Sascha Meyers finished in 10th in a lifetime best 2:03.13.
In the final swimming event of the competition Meng, Bethke, Stecker and senior Megan Marchuk combined to swim the seventh-fastest 400 free relay in school history, finishing second overall with a time of in 3:22.56.
On the platforms, Raquel Corniuk had a career day for the Orange and Blue. In the morning preliminaries Corniuk posted a score of 209.35, which broke the Illinois school record and qualified her for the finals. The new record wouldn’t last for long however, as just hours later Corniuk recorded a score of 210.25 in the finals, breaking the school record for the second time on the day. Sophomore Olivia Kassouni broke her own lifetime best in platform diving with a prelim score of 195.60. Kassouni’s score is the third highest in the event in Illinois history.
“All of the lifetime bests are a result of the work that we have put in at the pool and in the weight room,” Novitsky said. “Now we go back to work heading into the second half of the season.”
The Illini have a long break before their next meet, but will return to the pool against Iowa State on Jan. 16 at 4 p.m. CT at the ARC Pool.
Nebraska
The Nebraska swimming and diving team wrapped up competition at the Mizzou Invitational Saturday evening. The Huskers held off Illinois to claim third-place. Nebraska (513) trailed only Missouri (1,118) and Florida International (586). Nebraska was led by a victory from Nicole Schwery in the platform dive, a fourth-place finish in the 100-yard freestyle from Taryn Collura and a fifth-place finish by Julia Roller in the 200-yard butterfly.
In Saturday's first final, Katt Sickle captured 10th-place in the 1,650-yard freestyle with a time of 17:10.56. Aimee Fischer also competed in the event swimming a time of 17:38.13.
1,650-Yard Freestyle
10th- Katt Sickle, 17:10.56
x- Aimee Fischer, 17:38.13
Erin Oeltjen captured sixth-place in the 200-yard backstroke. Oeltjen swam to a time of 2:01.51. Cassie Brassard (11th), Rebekah Land (14th), Amanda Moran (17th) and Jacqueline Juffer (25th) all earned trips to the finals.
200-Yard Backstroke
6th- Erin Oeltjen, 2:01.51
11th- Cassie Brassard, 2:02.94
14th- Rebekah Land, 2:03.50
17th- Amanda Moran, 2:01.39
25th- Jacqueline Juffer, 2:07.32
In the 100-yard freestyle, Collura raced to a time of 50.01 earning her a fourth-place finish. Bria Deveaux and Kelly Dunn qualified for the c-final placing 17th and 23rd overall. Alex Bilunas qualified for the d-final swimming to a 25th-place finish.
100-Yard Freestyle
4th- Taryn Collura, 50.01
17th- Bria Deveaux, 51.26
23rd- Kelly Dunn, 52.27
25th- Alex Bilunas, 51.81
Nebraska boasted three top-15 finishers in the 200-yard breaststroke. Jordan Ehly led the way placing sixth with a time of 2:16.94. Katie Ditter and Sam Hardewig followed placing 10th and 13th respecitvely. Krista Van Wie (21st) and Ciara Jenkins (24th) qualified for the c-final, while Michaela Cunningham (31st) qualified for the d-final.
200-Yard Breaststroke
6th- Jordan Ehly, 2:16.94
10th- Katie Ditter, 2:19.04
13th- Sam Hardewig, 2:19.62
21st- Krista Van Wie, 2:23.38
24th- Ciara Jenkins, 2:25.45
31st- Michaela Cunningham, 2:26.24
In the 200-yard butterfly, Roller and Natalie Morris both earned spots in the top-7. Roller placed fifth with a time of 2:00.74 and Morris earned seventh with a time of 2:02.95. Fischer qualified for the c-finals placing 22nd with a time of 2:09.94.
200-Yard Butterfly
5th- Julia Roller, 2:00.74
7th- Natalie Morris, 2:02.95
22nd- Aimee Fischer, 2:09.94
Nebraska sent two divers to the platform diving finals. Schwery captured a victory with a score of 269.20 while Francesca Giganti placed eighth with a score of 190.90.
Platform Diving
1st- Nicole Schwery, 269.20
8th- Francesca Giganti, 190.90
Nebraska finished up the event with a sixth-place finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay. The team of Collura, Deveaux, Bilunas and Dunn raced to a time of 3:25.45.
?Nebraska will be back in action Friday, Dec. 5, at the Hawkeye Invitational. Nebraska's divers will be the only team members competing at the meet. The full squad will be back in action for the final competition of the fall for a dual meet with Northern Iowa on Friday, Dec. 12, at the Devaney Natatorium. Check back in to Huskers.com for any and all updates regarding the Nebraska swimming and diving team.
Florida International
The FIU swimming and diving team finished arguably one of its most successful weekends in program history, finishing second at the competitive Mizzou Invite. The Panthers finished Saturday with 586 points, placing ahead of Nebraska and Illinois from the Big Ten and West Virginia from the Big 12. The host school Mizzou finished first.
"We competed well this week,” said Head Coach Randy Horner. “We beat some very good teams from the Big 10 and Big 12 and that's a feather in our cap. We have a lot of work to do still to achieve our goals, but this meet was a great midseason evaluation."
FIU’s diving was on point on Saturday night. Freshman Rebecca Quesnel and sophomore Lilly Kaufmann earned a two-four finish respectively in the platform diving event against a very strong field. Quesnel and Kaufmann each qualified for zone diving in the event and Kaufmamm finishes the weekend qualifying for all three diving events. Quesnel posted the second best score in school history in the event, earning a 248.85 in the finals. Kaufmann’s best score of the day came in the prelims, where she earned a mark of 232.40, which ranks third in the history of the program.
In the 200 backstroke, freshman Silvia Scalia etched her name in another top 10 list at FIU, moving up to number two all-time in that event, as she posted a prelims time of 1:55.76. She followed that up with a 1:55.55 in the finasl to best her prelims score and put her in a second place finish in the event. Additionally, junior Karin Tomeckova improved her personal best time by over six seconds, moving into fourth in the school record books with a time of 1:57.46. Both Scalia and Tomeckova’s times are NCAA B-cuts. Meanwhile, freshman Skye Carey posted a time of 2:04.00, which is sixth in schools history. Freshman Ally Mayhew’s prelims time of 2:05.14 is good for seventh in school history and freshman Julianna Pettinger’s time of 2:06.21 is 10th.
Senior Johanna Gustafsdottir posted a personal best time and a school record of 2:14.20 in the 200 breaststroke. Senior Jean Madison was FIU’s second best finisher, as she clocked in at 2:19.50 in the prelims and 2:20.08 in the finals.
Junior Valerie Inghels cruised in the 200 butterfly with a mark of 1:58.43 in the preliminaries, smashing the school record by nearly a full second. Inghels finished second overall in the event. Freshman Brittney Fant improved her personal best time by over two seconds, earning a time of 2:03.47 in the prelims to move her up to No. 4 in school history.
Freshman Paulina Zelazna posted a prelims time of 51.18 seconds in the 100 freestyle to lead the Panthers. Her time now ties her for third with senior Klara Andersson in the FIU record books.
UNLV
UNLV swimming closed out the Mizzou Invitational in style on Saturday, out-touching the host Missouri squad in one of the fastest times in the nation this year. That finished three days of action for the Rebels in the meet.
Hannon Daigler started things off for the Rebels Saturday when he placed sixth in the 200 back with a time of 1:49.50.
Next was the 100 free, an event the Rebels placed three in the top six. Leading the way was Tom Paco-Pedroni, who finished runner-up in 43.48, after posting a time of 43.26 in the morning preliminaries. Or Sabatier was fourth in 43.58 while Henrique Machado took sixth with a time of 44.33. Caio Dini added a 12th place swim (45.17) for UNLV in the event.
The 200 breast saw one Rebel score, with Boris Kulizhnikov placing sixth in 1:59.95. Two Rebels placed in the top eight of the 200 fly, with Balint Batka finishing third in 1:45.78 and Avi Cohen seventh with a time of 1:47.74. Joe Riggert placed in the event as well, coming in 11th.
UNLV closed out by just out-touching the Missouri team in the 400 free relay. Machado, Sabatier, Paco-Pedroni and Dillon Virva turned in a first place time of 2:53.53, .08 seconds ahead of the Tiger relay squad, and a time that would rank second in the country coming into Saturday. It's also a NCAA 'B' time, and was .42 off the 'A' standard.
In the women's meet Michelle Troup posted a seventh place time in the 100 free, touching the wall in 50.61 after swimming 50.44 in the morning. Kristian Hendrick was the other Rebel woman to swim on Saturday, finishing 15th in the 200 breast in 2:21.11.
New Mexico
Three days of consecutive competition comes to a close for the University of New Mexico swimmers as they finish off the Mizzou Invite with a combined team score of 227 points for seventh place.
The Lobos were up against eight other teams who proved to be strong competitors since day one of competition at the Mizzou Aquatic Center.
They finished with the following rankings: University of Missouri for first place with 1,118 points, FIU for second place with 586 points, Nebraska followed for third place with 513 points, Illinois for fourth place with 506 points, Drury collected a total of 424 points for fifth place, West Virginia University for sixth place with 382 points, Northern Colorado for eighth place with 104 points, and UNLV takes ninth place after accumulating 34 points.
New Mexico was seen in five different races for the final day of the Mizzou Invite.
Junior swimmer Anna Lengyel started the meet off for the Lobos with the 1,650-yard freestyle event where she finished with a time of 17.20.80 for 13th place.
The 200-yard backstroke followed. Caitlin Gardiner raced a preliminary time of 2:01.40 and bumped up her A-final time to 2:00.58.
Shayla King was the first finisher out of four other Lobos to compete in the next race, the 100-yard freestyle.
King clocked in a preliminary time of 50.87 and a B-final time of 50.78 for 10th place. Morgan Ginnis also competed in the B-final group and finished with a preliminary time of 51.52 and a final time of 51.89 for 16th place. Fanni Pataki and Amelia Braul both represented UNM in the C-final group and recorded preliminary times of 51.90 and 52.14 and final times of 51.42 and 51.62 for an 18th and 20th finish, respectively. Anna Lilliestrom competed in the D-final round and completed the race with a 52.73 preliminary time and 52.63 final time for 29th place.
First year swimmer, Celine Bertrand, gave a strong performance in the 200-yard butterfly as she took the highest place for the Lobos in the aforementioned event. All of which competed in the B-final round.
Bertrand finished with a preliminary time of 2:03.99 and final time of 2:02.93 for ninth place.
Lengyel made her way back on to the charts as she raced a preliminary time of 2:03.33 and final time of 2:04.56 for 11th place in the same event. Abigail Wheeler trailed for 12th place after touching the wall with a preliminary and final time of 2:06.46 and 2:04.58, respectively.
King, Gardiner, Pataki, and Ginnis had a strong finish in the final event for the final day of the Mizzou Invite. The Lobo team stands as one of the upper finishers in the 400-yard freestyle as they took ninth place clocking in at 3:25.88.
New Mexico’s head coach, Kunio Kono, says that he is proud of the strong performances his team gave during every single day of the meet.
A combination of challenging opponents and three days of straight competition proved to be tough for the team but coach Kono says his team handled it all well. He includes, “This weekend was a very good lesson for our younger swimmers. They saw who they will be up against and which goals to work on for when they compete in the NCAA Championships.”
