Minneapolis, Minn. - The Nebraska swimming and diving
team completed the first round of preliminary events on Thursday morning at the
Big Ten Championships held at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center. The
Huskers competed in the 500-yard freestyle, 200-yard IM, and the 50-yard
freestyle.
In the
first preliminary swimming event of the morning, Bailey Pons finished 21st in
the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:49.49. Morgan Flannigan and Ashleigh
Grammar each posted career-best times, finishing the event in 39th (4:55.23)
and 58th (5:03.28), respectively.
500-Yard
Freestyle Results
21st -
Bailey Pons, 4:49.49
39th -
Morgan Flannigan, 4:55.23 (season best)
58th -
Ashleigh Grammar, 5:03.28 (season best)
64th - Michaela
Cunningham, 5:20.92
Eight Huskers
competed in the 200-yard IM preliminaries, including Katie Davis who finished
40th. Her time of 2:03.27 was a career best for the senior, and it
moved her into seventh all-time on the Nebraska 200-yard IM list.
Natalie
Morris and Ellan Dufour finished back-to-back in 54th and 55th for the Huskers.
The duo posted times of 2:04.75 and 2:04.77, respectively.
200
IM Results
40th -
Katie Davis, 2:03.27 (career best)
54th - Natalie
Morris, 2:04.75 (career best)
55th - Ellan
Dufour, 2:04.77
66th - Ashley
Reiter, 2:05.92 (career best)
69th - Kelsey
Larson, 2:06.24
74th - Samantha
Hardewig, 2:07.04 (career best)
75th - Kristin
Strecker, 2:07.10 (season best)
88th - Melisa
Mexia, 2:11.19 (career best)
The
50-yard freestyle preliminaries saw Taryn Collura finish fifth and break the
all-time Nebraska record with a time of 22.42 seconds. Olympic Medalist Therese
Alshammar was the previous record-holder for the Huskers with her 1999 time of
22.58 seconds.
Ariel
Weech finished in 13th with a career-best time of 22.81 seconds,
moving her into third all-time on the Husker 50-yard freestyle list. Shannon
Guy also posted a career-best time of 23.17 seconds, finishing in 25th
place.
Both
Collura and Weech earned NCAA B Cuts with their times and will advance to
Thursday evening's finals. Weech will compete in the B Finals while Collura
will have a shot at gold in the A Finals.
50-Yard
Freestyle Results
5th - Taryn
Collura, 22.42 (career best/school record)
13th -
Ariel Weech, 22.81 (career best)
25th - Shannon
Guy, 23.17 (career best)
52nd - Rebekah
Land, 23.77 (career best)
60th - Kelly
Dunn, 23.95
76th - Megan
Ziemann, 24.68 (season best)
77th - Sara
Weinberg, 24.75 (career best)
Head
Coach Pablo Morales was pleased by how well the team performed and excited for Thursday
evening's session.
"We were
seeded well in the 50 Free and our girls really came through," Morales said. "We
have one in the finals and one in the consolation finals, so we are guaranteed
two point-scoring individual swims in tonight's session. We are also leading
off the session with the 200-yard freestyle relay, which has been a strength of
ours this season, so hopefully we can get the session off to a great start."
The Big
Ten Championship's third session, including the finals of the 200-yard IM,
500-yard freestyle, 50-yard freestyle and one-meter dive, will take place
tonight beginning at 6:30 p.m. Check back in to Huskers.com and follow
@HuskerSwim on Twitter for updates.
