Big Ten Friday Recap: Indiana Sweeps Louisville

Lilly King. Photo Courtesy: Dan D'Addona

The No. 3/7 Indiana University men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams finished the dual-meet season with an exclamation point, sweeping the No. 14/10 Louisville Cardinals on Friday afternoon in Louisville.

The No. 3-ranked Hoosier men defeated the No. 14 Cardinals, 184.5-115.5, to finish the season undefeated for a second-straight year with a 9-0 record.

The No. 7-ranked Indiana women’s team took down No. 10 Louisville, 160.5-139.5, to finish the dual-meet season with a 5-4 record.

Lilly King led the way for the Hoosier women on Friday, winning three individual events. She won the 100 breaststroke (59.99) and 200 breaststroke (2:11.03) with NCAA B cut times. The junior then touched first in the 400 IM with a personal-best and NCAA B cut mark of 4:13.69.

Five Hoosiers won two individual events apiece against the Cardinals. Ian Finnerty swept the breaststroke, winning the 100 (53.20) and 200 (1:59.55) with NCAA B cut times. Vini Lanza swept the butterfly events, winning the 100 (46.86) and 200 (1:45.14) with NCAA B cut marks.

For the Hoosier women, Cassy Jernberg won the 1,000 freestyle with a personal-best time of 9:53.23 and then came back later in the day to touch first in the 500 freestyle with a mark of 4:51.49.

In the diving well, Jessica Parratto continued to dominate. The redshirt junior won both the 1-meter (298.65) and 3-meter (333.75) with NCAA Zones qualifying scores. On the men’s side, freshman Mory Gould won his first collegiate event, taking the top spot in the men’s 3-meter with a personal-best and NCAA Zones qualifying score of 362.40.

The IU men had a great showing in the sprint freestyle events, winning the 50, 100 and 200 against the Cardinals with NCAA B cut marks. Ali Khalafalla won the 50 free in 19.60, while Blake Pieroni touched first in the 100 free in a time of 43.75. Mohamed Samy won the 200 free with a mark of 1:34.76.

Rounding out the individual winners for the IU men was freshman Gabriel Fantoni. The reigning two-time Big Ten Freshman of the Week won the 100 backstroke with a NCAA B cut time of 47.27.

Minnesota leads Purdue, Northwestern

Minnesota men’s and women’s swimming and diving both lead after day one of the Big Ten triple dual meet. A strong showing on the springboards and in the sprint events led the Gophers to jump on top of Purdue and Northwestern heading into day two of the meet.

Women
No. 18 Minnesota 121, RV Purdue 84
No. 18 Minnesota 166, Northwestern 39

Minnesota’s `A’ Relay squad set the tone early for the Gophers placing first in the 200 medley relay. Tevyn Waddell, Lindsey Kozelsky, Danielle Nack and Zoe Avestruz touched in at 1:40.29 ahead of Purdue and Minnesota’s `B’ relay.

Freshman Mackenzie Padington kept the momentum rolling in a strong 1000-yard free performance placing second (9:50.60) behind Purdue’s senior star of Kaersten Meitz. Just one event later, Padington swam the 200 free in 1:46.60 beating out the field by eleven-hundredths of a second.

The first place finishes kept rolling in for the Gophers. Extending her winning streak in the 100 back to seven, Waddell placed first in 54.59 ahead of a pair of Boilermakers. In the 100 breast, Kozelsky notched a season best swim in her first place finish touching in at 1:00.51. Rachel Munson added a top three finish in a time of 1:03.54.

Danielle Nack continued the winning ways for the Maroon and Gold with her first place finish in the 200 fly. Touching in at 1:57.07, she defeated a host of Boilermakers in over four seconds. In a photo finish during the 50 free, Zoe Avestruz captured the win over Northwestern by twelve-hundredths of a second touching the wall at 23.00.

Sophomore Sarah Bacon brought the heat on the diving boards with a sweep. Bacon scored a 345.05 on the 3-meter before scoring 329.55 on the 3-meter.

Men
No. 24 Minnesota 112, Purdue 92
No. 24 Minnesota 144, Northwestern 59

The night started strong with the Gophers’ `A’ relay team placing first in the 200 medley relay in a time of 1:28.74.

Freshman Tim Sates captured the first top finish of the night for the young Gophers squad in the 200 free. In a tight race with teammates Kyle Van Niekerk (1:38.85) and Nick Saulnier (1:38.90), Sates came out ahead in a time of 1:38.60.

Sophomores Matt Thomas and Tumoas Pokkinen locked in a 1-2 finish in the 200 fly. Thomas touched in at 1:47.89 with Pokkinen following at 1:49.60.

Bowen Becker brought the excitement in a 50 free blowout swim. Becker defeated Northwestern and Purdue in over eighty-four hundredths of a second touching in at 19.64.

Ohio State, Wisconsin pick up individual wins

Liz Li won two titles (100 backstroke and 50 freestyle), Noah Lense won the 100 butterfly, and the Ohio State men’s 800 freestyle relay of Andrew Loy, Matthew Abeysinghe, Nick Hogsed and Paul DeLakis claimed gold to close out day one of the Shamrock Invitational.

Li’s second win of the day came in her first individual 100 backstroke race since November of 2016. Li went out in 26.63 and returned to the finishing wall with a readout of 27.68 for a winning time of 54.31, .46 seconds closer than the No. 2 finisher.

Lense claimed his sixth individual title of the season with a solid swim in the 100 fly. The Clearwater, Fla., native won gold with a time of 47.52 throwing down splits of 22.12 and 25.40.

The men’s 800 freestyle relay found itself in fourth place after the first three legs from Loy (1:39.48), Abeysinghe (1:40.19) and Hogsed (1:37.27). DeLakis registered the quickest split of the race, a 1:34.80, to bring the Buckeyes back to the top. DeLakis erased a three and a half second deficit during his anchor leg for a winning time of 6:31.74.

Wisconsin was led by a standout performance from freestyle specialist Abby Jagdfeld. The senior was victorious in the 200-yard freestyle (1:47.13) and the 500 free (4:47.68).

Matt Novinski paced the field in the 100 back, winning the event with a time of 48.78.

Rutgers ahead vs. Nebraska

Rutgers swimming and diving used six event wins to take a 93-76 lead over Nebraska after Day 1 of a two-day dual meet at the Rutgers Aquatic Center on Friday evening.

Senior diver Addison Walkowiak kicked off her final home dual meet of her career with the 11th event victory of her season, scoring 341.03 points on the 3-meter boards.

On the other end of the pool, sophomore Francesca Bertotto gave RU the early lead in the dual with her seventh event victory of the season as she outswam Nebraska in the 500-yard freestyle in 4:54.13. Right behind her was newcomer Sveva Schizzano making her Rutgers Aquatic Center debut with a second place finish in the 500.

Junior Vera Koprivova led it off by taking the 200-yard backstroke by 3.5 seconds over a pair of neck-and-neck Nebraska foes, followed by a win in the 100-yard freestyle by sophomore Clare Lawlor.

Junior Francesca Stoppa continued the streak with a victory in the 200-yard butterfly, tying Koprivova for the team lead in event wins with eight.

Illinois wins four duals

The Fighting Illini women’s swimming and diving team came away with four wins on Friday night, defeating Olivet Nazarene (185-54), Youngstown State (166-75), Lincoln College (194-36) and Eastern Illinois (192-30). The Illini won 10 out of the 11 women’s swimming events, as well as both diving events.

Individual event winners included, senior Samantha Stratford in the 200 freestyle (1:52.76), Kristin Anderson in the 50 freestyle (23.96) and 100 freestyle (52.42), Michelle McCord in the 100 individual medley (58.60) and 100 breaststroke (1:04.78), Megan Vuong in the 100 butterfly (57.04), Jamie Kolar in the 100 backstroke (58.45) and Monica Guyett in the 500 freestyle (5:04.99).

The highlight of the meet came in the last event of the night, as the 200 freestyle relay team of Anderson, Curtis, Vuong and Stratford tied an ARC Pool record with a time of 1:34.91.

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