Matt Marshall, Justin Mortimer and Carly Piper Named Big 10 Swimmers of the Week

CHICAGO, November 5. TE Big Ten Conference named Wisconsin's Matt Marshall and Minnesota's Justin Mortimer, both juniors, its men’s co-Swimmer of the Week today. Wisconsin sophomore Carly Piper earned female Swimmer of the Week honors.

Matt Marshall
Marshall was honored for his performances against Arizona, Auburn and the Mexican National team last weekend.

On the first day of competition this past weekend, Marshall was a member of the first-place 200 medley relay (1:31.29) and took first in the 100 fly (48.40). On Saturday, Marshall aided the Badgers to victory by winning first-place as a member of the 400 medley relay squad (3:18.84) and as a member of the 400 free relay team (2:59.81). Marshall also finished first in the 50 free with a time of 20.72.

This is Matt Marshall’s first honor of the year and the second of his career. He's the Badger record-holder in the 100 yard buttterfly off his 47.65 from last year's Longhorn Invitational at Texas.

Justin Mortimer
Minnesota Golden Gopher swimmer Justin Mortimer shared top honors with Wisconsin's Marshall.

In the first meet of the season, Mortimer finished first in every individual event in the triple dual against No. 16 North Carolina and Harvard last weekend at Chapel Hill. Mortimer won the 500 yard freestyle in 4:26.30, provisionally qualifying for the NCAA Championships, and he also took first in the 1000 free and the 400 individual medley. His 1000 free time of 9:00.75 ranks second on the all-time Gopher list, second only to his own 8:56.27, which he swam last season.

Mortimer also swam the first-leg on Minnesota's 800 free relay that the Gophers won in 6:37.81. The junior distance specialist holds Minnesota records in the 500 free (4:17.18), 1000 (8:56.27) and 1650 free (14:47.82). This latter swim also ranks him sixth on the all-time Big 10 mile list (performer) and earned him a bronze medal at last year's NCAAs. In that race, Michigan's Chris Thompson set the current American/NCAA record (14:26.62).

Carly Piper
Wisconsin's Carly Piper was honored for her performance against Toledo and Iowa the last weekend of October.

Piper swam an NCAA automatic qualifying time of 4:45.45 for the 500 yard freestyle versus Iowa Oct. 26, almost 20 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher.

Foreshadowing Saturday’s performance, Piper swam an NCAA "B" cut in the 500 free on Thursday, breaking her own UW Natatorium pool record (4:46.51) set the previous Thursday against Toledo.

Piper also topped former Badger All-America Ellen Stonebraker’s school record in the 1000-yard freestyle over the weekend. Piper bettered the three and-a-half year-old record against Iowa Friday night with a 9:49.40, then came right back and won the 200 free (1:50.95). Piper was also a member of the winning 200 free relay Saturday and the 400 free relay that touched first Thursday, but the 400 relay event was exhibitioned.

It is the first weekly conference award for the four-time Big Ten champion. The 2002 Big Ten Swimmer of the Championships and 2002 Big Ten Freshman of the Year won the 200 free, 500 free, 1650 free at last year's conference championships and was a member of the Badgers' winning 800 free relay too.

Her prs include a 1:47.30 200, free, No. 2 on the all-time Wisconsin list to Stonebreaker's 1:45.88; and a 4:42.26 500 from last season's NCAAs, again No. 2 to Stonebreaker's 4:41.26 from the 1999 National Collegiate Champiomship meet.

Badger coach Eric Hansen is hopeful his supersoph will become No. 1 in both races by season's end and also be a factor at NCAAs, come the third weekend of March in Austin.

Justin Mortimer - University of Minnesota

Carly Piper - University of Wisconsin

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