2019 B1G Women’s Champs: Day 1 Finals Live Recap

2019 B1G WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIPS

• When: Wednesday, February 20th to Saturday, February 23rd | Prelims 11am | Finals 6:30pm (6pm Saturday)
• Where: Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatics Center, Bloomington, IN (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Michigan Wolverines (3x)
• Live Results
• Streaming: Big Ten Network
• Championship Central: here

The first night of the 2019 B1G Women’s Championships kicks off in Bloomington, Indiana, with the 200 medley relay and 800 free relay. Michigan and Indiana will be locked into battle in a meet that is projected to be very close the whole way through, with Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Ohio State pushing for a third place finish. Meanwhile, the Northwestern Wildcats are looking at their best season thus far in a very long time, and they’ll try to push up into the middle of the conference.

200 MEDLEY RELAY

1. Indiana – 1:34.71
2. Michigan – 1:34.98
3. Ohio State – 1:35.85

As expected, things got off to an electric start, with Indiana edging Michigan for the win in the 200 medley relay here. Despite having a backstroke hole all year, freshman Morgan Scott put forth one of the quickest lead-offs of the field (24.21) which was followed by Lilly King‘s unofficial fastest breast split ever: 25.36. She held the old unofficial record at 25.38 from her split at NCAAs last year. Christie Jensen was 23.02 on fly with Shelby Koontz 22.12 on the end as IU was too far ahead for Michigan’s dangerous back-half to catch them.

Michigan had a 24.52 lead-off from Taylor Garcia, followed by Miranda Tucker‘s 26.31 (the field’s 2nd-best split). Freshman Maggie Macneil unleashed a 22.39, the fastest fly leg in the field, with sophomore Daria Pyshnenko, who was hampered by injury and missed competition for most of the first semester, anchoring in 21.76 — not quite enough to track down Koontz.

Ohio State was 1:35.85, just two hundredths ahead of Wisconsin, who was 1:35.87. Wisconsin’s Beata Nelson was 22.40 on the fly leg, the second-fastest in the field, but OSU sophomore Freya Rayner threw down the field’s best anchor leg (21.34) to hold off Emmy Sehmann on the Badger’s anchor (21.69).

Minnesota was 5th (1:36.22) with a 26.47 breast leg from Lindsey Kozelsky while Northwestern clawed its way to 6th (1:36.93) as Calypso Sheridan had the quickest first 50 (24.05) and Malorie Han had a 21.92 anchor leg.

800 FREE RELAY

1. Michigan 6:54.58
2. Minnesota 7:00.10
3. Wisconsin 7:00.39

The big race here wasn’t for first, but for second, as Michigan was untouchable after Siobhan Haughey‘s 1:40.75 third leg split. Things came down to the finish, though, in the race for second, as Wisconsin’s Beata Nelson tried to moved up and pass Minnesota’s Zoe Avestruz.

While Michigan sailed to the win at 6:54.58 to break their 2017 B1G meet record (Catie Deloof had an impressive 1:42.39 anchor), Minnesota saw the five-second lead they had going into the final legs nearly disappear altogether. Nelson, who was out in a blazing 47.94, turned in a 1:42.03 anchor leg to nearly draw even with Avestruz, though it was not quite enough.

Chantal Nack and Lillie Hosack both had great lead-offs as they were the top two flat start times in the field. Nack was 1:43.16 for Minnesota and Hosack 1:44.29 for Wisconsin. That’s a personal best by 1.36 seconds for Nack, who broke 1:45 for the first time at mid-season, and Hosack takes 1.99 off of her old best from mid-season after coming into college with a high school best of 1:49.40.

Other strong swims came from Iowa’s Hannah Burvill (1:45.65 lead-off) and Kristen Romano (1:44.90 lead-off) and Kathrin Demler (1:44.70 split) of OSU.

Team Scores After Day 1

1. Michigan – 120
2. Indiana – 114
3. (TIE) Ohio State/Wisconsin/Minnesota – 106
6. Purdue – 94
7. Northwestern – 82
8. (TIE) Iowa/Penn State – 76
10. Nebraska – 74
11. Illinois – 70
12. Michigan State – 60
13. Rutgers – 44