MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota, February 9. SENIOR Leila Vaziri reclaimed her crown in the 100-yard backstroke and junior Christina Loukas won the three-meter for the first time in her career as Indiana rode several strong performances into the lead at the Big Ten Championships on Feb. 9.<\/p>\n
The Hoosiers moved closer to their first Big Ten title since 2003 by running their two-day total 453.5 points. Penn State is next with 387.5, and is followed by day-one leader Michigan (378 points), Minnesota (307), Wisconsin (305.5), Purdue (207), Northwestern (206), Ohio State (129), Illinois (119.5), Iowa (79) and Michigan State (30).<\/p>\n
Vaziri earned her second Big Ten title in the 100 back, reclaiming the crown she first won in 2005. The Coral Springs, Fla., native swam to a Big Ten and school-record time of 52.85 to win the event. Freshman Presley Bard capped a 1-2 Indiana sweep with her second-place finish in 54.24. Vaziri's time erased the school record she set Thursday with her leadoff leg in the 400-yard medley relay.<\/p>\n
Loukas, the two-time Big Ten Diver of the Year and Diver of the Championships, won her first career title on the three-meter, turning in a school-record score of 387.95 in the finals to top Purdue's Amanda Miller, who posted 378.90 points for second. Indiana freshman Brittney Feldman continued to impress in her inaugural league meet, taking third with a score of 336.60 after a fifth-place effort in the one-meter on Thursday. Senior Lindsay Weigle finished fourth in the three-meter with a score of 327.70.<\/p>\n
Junior Ashley Greene had a solid showing in the prelims, taking ninth with a score of 282.60 to just miss the finals.<\/p>\n
"Christina stepped up and dove like champ," Indiana diving coach Dr. Jeff Huber said. "Ashley Greene did a great job today. She just missed making finals and just missed beating the defending champion from last year. That was a huge performance on her part. Brittney Feldman really stepped up and did a nice job as a freshman in the finals tonight, taking third. I think that Lindsay Weigle was a little off this meet, but she's been around enough that her focus is going to be on the NCAAs."<\/p>\n
The Hoosiers narrowly missed picking up titles in three other events, posting second-place finishes in the 200-medley relay, the 100-yard breaststroke and the 400-yard individual medley.<\/p>\n
IU opened the evening finals session with a runner-up finish in the 200 medley relay, with Vaziri, sophomore Sarah Stockwell, Bard and senior Annica Lofstedt teaming to post a time of school-record and NCAA provisional time of 1:39.60. The Hoosiers were just 0.03 seconds off Wisconsin's pace in the event.<\/p>\n
Sophomore Allison Kay turned in a second-place effort in the 400 IM, touching in 4:15.71. Freshman Ashley Jones finished third in 4:26.20. Both times were good for NCAA "B" cuts. Freshman Amilee Smith rounded out the scoring for Indiana in the event, touching in 4:24.27 for 16th place.<\/p>\n
In the 100 breast, Stockwell took second in a school-record time of 1:02.45. The record was her second of the day, as she broke her own mark with a 1:02.52 effort in the morning preliminary session. Classmate Abby Cooper took fifth in the finals, touching in 1:03.14.<\/p>\n
Lofstedt was a finalist in the 100-yard butterfly, taking seventh place with a time of 55.14, good for an NCAA "B" cut. Freshman Donna Smailis tied for ninth place, turning in a time of 55.57, while classmate Brittany Barwegen was 11th in 55.63.<\/p>\n
The Hoosiers had a pair of consolation finalists in the 200-yard freestyle, with senior Clarissa Wentworth taking 10th in 1:48.53 and freshman Emma Berry finishing 15th in 1:50.60. Wentworth's time was good for an NCAA provisional cut.<\/p>\n
Indiana capped the day with a fourth-place finish in the 800-yard freestyle relay. Wentworth, Berry, freshman Emily Lanteigne and freshman Cassie Luhrsen combined to touch in 7:19.58, an NCAA provisional time.<\/p>\n
"We've got a lot of work to do still," head coach Ray Looze said. "We've got two sessions left, and basically, the way we're thinking, everything starts over tomorrow. We've got to win that session. The score returns to 0-0. That's our mentality. The score right now means nothing to us. We did a good job today. We did our job. We had a better day and we're doing better every session, but the way we're thinking, the score is 0-0 again."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota, February 9. SENIOR Leila Vaziri reclaimed her crown in the 100-yard backstroke and junior Christina Loukas won the three-meter for the first time in her career as Indiana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n