EVANSTON, Illinois, January 17. NO. 20 Northwestern dominated No. 22 Michigan, 173-122, Saturday during Senior Day at the Norris Aquatics Center, knocking off its second-consecutive ranked dual-meet opponent.<\/p>\n
Northwestern (9-2, 2-2) won all but four swimming events and swept the top-three spots in three different races to aid in its commanding victory. NU also knocked off then-No. 24 Notre Dame on January 10.<\/p>\n
Northwestern got the meet started in a big way by sweeping the top two positions in the 400 medley relay. The team of Liza Engstrom (Reno, Nev.\/Robert McQueen), Jenny Wilson (Bethesda, Md.\/Sidwell Friends School), Stacy Congdon (Windermere, Fla.\/Lake Highland Prep) and Emily Wong (Nepean, Ontario\/St. Joseph's) pulled away from the field to win with a time of 3:46.57. Following in second was the group comprised of Katie Eschenburg (Hartland, Wis.\/Arrowhead), Hayley Fry (Marion, Iowa\/Linn-Mar), Meghan Cavanaugh (Anchorage, Alaska\/Anchorage) and Shelby Johnson (Wayzata, Minn.\/Wayzata), which turned in a time of 3:49.47. The Wildcats' `B' squad trailed Michigan's `A' relay until Johnson put the hammer down and passed U-M's anchor during the second 50 yards of the freestyle leg.<\/p>\n
Northwestern then built on its big lead early in the meet by winning the top three spots in the 1,000 free. Jenn Kocsis (Omaha, Neb.\/Marian) won the race with a 10:10.40, Ellen Grigg (Charlotte, N.C.\/Charlotte Latin School) was second in a season-best effort of 10:18.65 and Beth Loe (Upper Arlington, Ohio\/Upper Arlington) earned third-place points with a 10:26.98.<\/p>\n
Kassia Shishkoff (Raleigh, N.C.\/St. David's School) came out on top of the 200 free with a 1:48.40, while Cavanaugh (1:53.97) in third and Jacquie Godbe (Rapid City, S.D.\/Stevens) (1:54.09) in fourth also earned points for the 'Cats.<\/p>\n
Michigan then won its first event of the meet with a top finish in the 100 back, but Northwestern took places two-through-four. Engstrom was second with a 56.86, Eschenburg took third in 57.05 and Genny Szymanski (Haines, Alaska\/Haines) was fourth in 57.79.<\/p>\n
The Wildcats got back to their winning ways when Wilson and Fry went 1-2 in the 100 breast. Wilson swam a 1:03.51 and Fry clocked a 1:05.17 in the event. Michigan took back the winner's spot in the 200 fly, but again Northwestern went two-through-four in the race. Rachel Rys (Goleta, Calif.\/Dos Pueblos), who has battled injury all year long, had a breakout swim with a season-best 2:01.15 to finish second. Hannah Points (Tualatin, Ore.\/Tualatin) was third in 2:02.40 and Shishkoff came back after her 200 free win to take points with a fourth-place time of 2:04.84 in the 200 fly.<\/p>\n
Northwestern turned in its second top-three sweep of the meet in the 50 free. Wong won with a 23.39, Johnson was second with a 23.74 and Teisha Lightbourne (Nassau, Bahamas\/Peddie School (N.J.)) took third in 23.39.<\/p>\n
In diving action during the first half of the meet, Tania Lyerly (Libertyville, Ill.\/Libertyville) braved a field of six Michigan divers to take second place on the 3-meter board with a score of 272.40. Lyerly was NU's lone diver in Saturday's meet.<\/p>\n
Following the mid-meet break, Wong won her second-straight event with a 51.28 in the 100 free. Johnson (52.49) and Lightbourne (53.06) were second and third, respectively, for Northwestern.<\/p>\n
Szymanski swam her second sub-2:00 time of the season in the 200 back to win the event with a 1:59.79. Engstrom followed Szymanski in third with a 2:04.51.<\/p>\n
In the 200 breast, Northwestern won top-three points for the third time in the meet. Wilson won with a 2:19.00, Points had a 2:21.10 to take second and Kathleen Patterson (Naperville, Ill.\/Neuqua Valley) was third with a 2:22.41. Senior Jill Forster (Centerville, Ohio\/Centerville) actually finished fourth in the event by out-touching Michigan's top swimmer by .03 of a second with a time of 2:25.34, but only the top three can score points for a team in any one event.<\/p>\n
In the 500 free, Kocsis won her second event of the meet with a time of 4:58.05. Michigan then notched its third swimming event victory in the 100 fly, with Rys (56.33) and Eschenburg (56.72) coming in third and fourth for NU, respectively.<\/p>\n
On the 3-meter diving board, Lyerly again earned some points for the 'Cats, this time with a fourth-place score of 255.45.<\/p>\n
In the final individual event, Michigan notched the victory in the 400 IM with Shishkoff (4:22.83), Points (4:23.18) and Patterson (4:27.70) earning second, third and fourth, respectively, for NU.<\/p>\n
NU's 200 free relay team of Lightbourne, Wong, Johnson and Shishkoff concluded the meet with a victory, swimming a time of 1:33.76 to win by more than a second.<\/p>\n
Prior to the meet, Northwestern seniors Forster, Fry and Sara White-Delehoy (Kent, Wash.\/Kentlake) were honored. The Wildcats' men's team seniors — Adam Beckman (Kearney, Neb.\/Kearney), John Franklin (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.\/North Broward Prep), Alex Kiaie (Milwaukee, Wis.\/Nicolet) and Eric Nilsson (Weston, Mass.\/Weston) — also were honored during this time. The meet was NU's Chipotle BIG MEET for the 2008-09 season and the spectator portion of the Norris Aquatics Center was packed.<\/p>\n
Special thanks to Northwestern for contributing this report.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
EVANSTON, Illinois, January 17. NO. 20 Northwestern dominated No. 22 Michigan, 173-122, Saturday during Senior Day at the Norris Aquatics Center, knocking off its second-consecutive ranked dual-meet opponent. Northwestern (9-2,<\/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-20011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n