NCAA Div. I Women: Cats Hammer the Buckeyes
EVANSTON, Ill., Feb. 1. ON Senior Day at the Norris Aquatics Center, Carmen Cosgrove (Perth, Australia) decided to go out in style. Swimming in her final home dual meet, Cosgrove broke the pool record in the 200
butterfly as Northwestern closed out its dual season with a convincing 177.5-109.5 victory over Ohio State.
The victory completes NU's dual meet season with an overall record of 7-5 and a 2-4 mark in the Big Ten. Ohio State falls to 7-5 overall and 0-5 in conference action.
Cosgrove's record-breaking time of 2:00.85, barely edges out the top mark of 2:00.95 set by Tennessee's Nicole Bassi just two weeks ago. In addition to her
"B" cut time in the 200 fly, Cosgrove also bested her provisional time in the 100 fly, touching the wall first in 55.00, although her effort came in an exhibitioned performance.
She also joined Katie Paglini (Chicago, Ill./Latin School), Paige Nath (Wichita, Kan./Trinity Academy) and Sara Petric (Mequon, Wis./Homestead) in winning the 200 medley relay (1:45.02), and Petric, Lori Schwanhausser (Ridgefield, Conn./Ridgefield) and
Michaela Restivo (Douglastown, N.Y./Trinity School) on the victorious 800 freestyle relay squad (7:41.69). The 200 medley relay quartet posted NU's top time of the season in the race.
In all, the Wildcats finished first in every event except one that they did not exhibition. Officially, Northwestern recorded 13 first-place finishes in the 16 events.
Paglini, Erin Swenson (Florissant, Mo./Hazelwood Central) and Vicky West (Redlands, Calif./Redlands) each won two individual events for the 'Cats. Paglini swept the backstroke, winning the 100 in 57.42 and
the 200 in 2:04.83. West won both of the distance freestyle events, capturing the title in the 500 in a top time of 4:58.84 and the 1000 in 10:08.17.
Swenson won the 100 and 200 freestyle titles in 52.61
and 1:52.33, respectively.
Brielle Bovee (Winter Park, Fla./Lake Highland Prep) returned from a long injury layoff to edge out teammate Rachel Johnson (Champaign, Ill./Centennial) by 21-hundredths of a second to earn top honors in
the 100 breaststroke (1:05.56).
NU also got titles from Maria Reeves (Fairbanks, Alaska/Lathrop) in the 50 free (23.93), Katie Simmons (Carmel, Ind./Carmel) in the 200 breast (2:22.88) and Ashley Carter (Louisville, Ky./Sacred Heart Academy), who tied for first on the 1-meter diving board with a score of 284.40.
In addition to Cosgrove's effort in the 100 fly, Nath's top performance in the 200 individual medley was also exhibitioned.
The meet marked the final home dual in the careers of Cosgrove, Johnson and Kristin Ward (Oakton, Va./St. Stephen's and St. Agnes), who finished fourth on both the 1-meter and 3-meter diving boards.
Northwestern will now take nearly three weeks off in preparation for the Big Ten Championships to be held Feb. 19-22 in West Lafayette, Ind.