The first full morning of the 2018 Big Ten Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships featured three short events but witnessed a Big Ten record fall.
Ohio State’s Liz Li used her home pool to go a 21.67 in the 50 free to snag the top seed and will have a chance to win her third straight Big Ten title in the event. Purdue’s Kaersten Meitz and Wisconsin’s Beata Nelson are the top seeds in the 500 and the 200 IM respectively as the Wisconsin natives are looking to unseat the defending champions G Ryan of Michigan and Lilly King of Indiana.
Michigan and Indiana are the top two teams in the meet and we are tracking the ups and downs for swims later on tonight.
Michigan: 7-5*-1
Indiana: 5-2-7
*Michigan has a tie for 16th in the 50 with Vanessa Krause in a swim-off with Ohio State’s Marian Kahmann.
500 Free
Purdue senior Kaersten Meitz got Thursday’s prelims off to a good start as she swam the fastest 500 of the morning with a 4:37.66. Meitz is the top seed in the event ahead of Michigan freshman Sierra Schmidt (4:38.03) and Indiana senior Kennedy Goss (4:38.48).
Michigan got three total finalists along with a swimmer in the B and C final. Rose Bi (4:38.88) and G Ryan (4:39.27) will swim in the final for the Wolverines as Ryan is the defending B1G champion and looking for a repeat.
Cassy Jernberg of Indiana (4:39.83), Ally McHugh of Penn State (4:39.95) and Molly Kowal of Ohio State (4:40.73) will also swim in the championship final.
Minnesota’s Brooke Zeiger notably missed the final with a 4:42.17 for 11th place.
Event 3 Women 500 Yard Freestyle
==================================================================
B1G Meet: @ 4:34.40 2/16/2017 G Ryan, Michigan
Pool: # 4:26.46 11/18/2016Katie G Ledecky, Stanford
4:36.30 A NCAA Qualifying
4:47.79 B NCAA Provisional
Name Year School Seed Prelims
==================================================================
=== Preliminaries ===
1 Meitz, Kaersten SR Purdue 4:36.59 4:37.66 qB
r:+0.78 26.45 54.53 (28.08)
1:22.72 (28.19) 1:50.93 (28.21)
2:19.16 (28.23) 2:47.28 (28.12)
3:15.19 (27.91) 3:42.92 (27.73)
4:10.76 (27.84) 4:37.66 (26.90)
2 Schmidt, Sierra FR Michigan 4:38.54 4:38.03 qB
r:+0.73 26.07 53.91 (27.84)
1:22.14 (28.23) 1:50.15 (28.01)
2:18.05 (27.90) 2:46.03 (27.98)
3:14.11 (28.08) 3:42.38 (28.27)
4:10.71 (28.33) 4:38.03 (27.32)
3 Goss, Kennedy SR Indiana 4:40.72 4:38.48 qB
r:+0.60 26.02 54.22 (28.20)
1:22.60 (28.38) 1:50.80 (28.20)
2:18.89 (28.09) 2:46.81 (27.92)
3:14.83 (28.02) 3:42.56 (27.73)
4:10.76 (28.20) 4:38.48 (27.72)
4 Bi, Yirong JR Michigan 4:35.02 4:38.88 qB
r:+0.68 26.08 53.90 (27.82)
1:21.90 (28.00) 1:49.51 (27.61)
2:17.64 (28.13) 2:45.73 (28.09)
3:14.03 (28.30) 3:42.45 (28.42)
4:10.83 (28.38) 4:38.88 (28.05)
5 Ryan, G SR Michigan 4:39.72 4:39.27 qB
r:+0.70 26.00 53.80 (27.80)
1:22.01 (28.21) 1:50.46 (28.45)
2:18.72 (28.26) 2:47.26 (28.54)
3:15.98 (28.72) 3:44.15 (28.17)
4:12.48 (28.33) 4:39.27 (26.79)
6 Jernberg, Cassa SO Indiana 4:42.71 4:39.83 qB
r:+0.68 26.18 53.77 (27.59)
1:21.44 (27.67) 1:49.50 (28.06)
2:17.85 (28.35) 2:46.31 (28.46)
3:14.73 (28.42) 3:43.15 (28.42)
4:11.71 (28.56) 4:39.83 (28.12)
7 McHugh, Allyson JR Penn St 4:38.77 4:39.95 qB
r:+0.80 26.70 54.99 (28.29)
1:23.48 (28.49) 1:52.10 (28.62)
2:20.56 (28.46) 2:48.88 (28.32)
3:17.09 (28.21) 3:45.25 (28.16)
4:13.10 (27.85) 4:39.95 (26.85)
8 Kowal, Molly SO Ohio St 4:42.28 4:40.73 qB
r:+0.87 26.34 54.19 (27.85)
1:22.27 (28.08) 1:50.52 (28.25)
2:18.84 (28.32) 2:47.22 (28.38)
3:15.62 (28.40) 3:44.25 (28.63)
4:12.95 (28.70) 4:40.73 (27.78)
200 IM
Wisconsin sophomore Beata Nelson picked up the top seed in the 200 IM at 1:55.20 ahead of Michigan’s Siobhan Haughey (1:55.53). Haughey is the 2016 B1G champion and touched first last year but was disqualified, thus giving the title to Lilly King. King is the third seed and will look to defend her title without having to rely on a disqualification. King swam a 1:56.03 this morning.
This was Haughey’s first swim of the meet after sitting out the 800 free relay last night.
Ohio State’s Meg Bailey (1:56.45), Michigan’s Clara Smiddy (1:56.80), Michigan’s Miranda Tucker (1:56.97), Indiana’s Christie Jensen (1:56.97) and Ohio State’s Megan Doty (1:57.45) will swim in the championship final.
One of the most underrated swimmers in the Big Ten, Minnesota sophomore Lindsey Kozelsky was 15th with a 1:58.81. She had a 32.29 breaststroke split that was only behind King. She had a very quick split last night in the medley relay, but was not picked up due to a pad malfunction.
Event 4 Women 200 Yard IM
==================================================================
B1G Meet: @ 1:54.97 2/18/2016 Siobhan B Haughey, Michigan
Pool: # 1:52.63 11/30/2017Melanie Margalis, Saint Petersburg
1:55.00 A NCAA Qualifying
2:01.59 B NCAA Provisional
Name Year School Seed Prelims
==================================================================
=== Preliminaries ===
1 Nelson, Elizabe SO Wisconsin 1:55.16 1:55.20 qB
r:+0.74 24.68 53.42 (28.74)
1:27.25 (33.83) 1:55.20 (27.95)
2 Haughey, Siobha JR Michigan 1:53.48 1:55.53 qB
r:+0.72 24.83 54.79 (29.96)
1:27.45 (32.66) 1:55.53 (28.08)
3 King, Lillia JR Indiana 1:55.96 1:56.03 qB
r:+0.66 25.56 55.77 (30.21)
1:27.77 (32.00) 1:56.03 (28.26)
4 Bailey, Meg SR Ohio St 1:57.13 1:56.45 qB
r:+0.70 25.16 55.14 (29.98)
1:28.05 (32.91) 1:56.45 (28.40)
5 Smiddy, Clara SR Michigan 1:55.74 1:56.80 qB
r:+0.68 26.13 54.19 (28.06)
1:28.19 (34.00) 1:56.80 (28.61)
6 Tucker, Miranda SO Michigan 1:58.35 1:56.97 qB
r:+0.67 25.48 56.02 (30.54)
1:28.53 (32.51) 1:56.97 (28.44)
6 Jensen, Christi JR Indiana 1:57.97 1:56.97 qB
r:+0.68 24.69 54.78 (30.09)
1:28.44 (33.66) 1:56.97 (28.53)
8 Doty, Megan SO Wisconsin 2:00.70 1:57.45 qB
r:+0.76 25.42 54.61 (29.19)
1:29.26 (34.65) 1:57.45 (28.19)
50 Free
Ohio State senior Liz Li swimming in her home pool swam a new pool and Big Ten record of 21.67. Li broke Wisconsin’s Ivy Martin‘s Big Ten record of 21.84 from 2013 and Arizona’s Lara Jackson‘s pool record of 21.69 from the 2008 NCAA’s. Li was the only swimmer under 22 seconds in the prelims as she is going for three Big Ten titles in a row tonight in her home pool.
She will have two of her Buckeye teammates in the final with her. Macie McNichols (22.34) was fourth and Freya Rayner (22.42) was eighth in prelims.
Minnesota’s Danielle Nack (22.17), Wisconsin’s Marissa Berg (22.33), Minnesota’s Zoe Avestruz (22.35), Michigan’s Catie DeLoof (22.36) and Indiana’s Grace Haskett (22.38) will also swim in tonight’s final.
Event 5 Women 50 Yard Freestyle
==================================================================
B1G Meet: @ 21.84 2013 Ivy Martin, Wisconsin
Pool: # 21.69 3/16/2008 Lara Jackson, Arizona
21.80 A NCAA Qualifying
22.99 B NCAA Provisional
Name Year School Seed Prelims
==================================================================
=== Preliminaries ===
1 Li, Zhesi SR Ohio St 21.97 21.67#qA
r:+0.68 10.43 21.67 (11.24)
2 Nack, Danielle SR Minnesota 22.44 22.17 qB
r:+0.68 10.71 22.17 (11.46)
3 Berg, Marissa SR Wisconsin 22.74 22.33 qB
r:+0.70 10.85 22.33 (11.48)
4 McNichols, Maci SR Ohio St 22.59 22.34 qB
r:+0.63 10.75 22.34 (11.59)
5 Avestruz, Zoe JR Minnesota 22.41 22.35 qB
r:+0.66 10.76 22.35 (11.59)
6 Deloof, Catheri JR Michigan 22.30 22.36 qB
r:+0.68 10.87 22.36 (11.49)
7 Haskett, Grace FR Indiana 22.10 22.38 qB
r:+0.63 10.73 22.38 (11.65)
8 Rayner, Freya FR Ohio St 22.25 22.42 qB
r:+0.66 10.97 22.42 (11.45)
.jpg "2017-18 Big Ten Conference - logo"){kind=logo}
Go Liz!!!