2020 Women’s B1G Championships: Day 4 Finals Live Recap

2020 WOMEN’S B1G CHAMPIONSHIPS

The 2020 women’s Big Ten team champions are hours away from being crowned. Leading by 161 points are the Ohio State Buckeyes (1016 pts), followed by the Michigan Wolverines (855 pts) and IU Hoosiers (680 pts).

Kicking off the meet will be the 1650 free top-seeded heat, led by Michigan Wolverines Kaitlynn Sims and Sierra Schmidt. Then, Wisconsin senior Beata Nelson leads the 200 back as she will contest for her final B1G title after breaking the Iowa pool record (1:50.55).

The rest of the evening’s top finals seeds include IU’s Noelle Peplowski (200 breast) and Michigan’s Maggie MacNeil (100 free) and Olivia Carter (200 fly). The platform diving finals and 400 free relay timed finals will close out the championships.

1650 FREE – TIMED FINALS:

  • B1G Record: Ally McHugh (PSU) – 15:36.27
  • Meet Record: Ally McHugh (PSU) – 15:43.34
  • Pool Record: Lindsey Vrooman (IU) – 16:00.44
  • NCAA ‘A’ Cut: 15:52.41
  • Defending Champion: Ally McHugh (PSU) – 15:47.18

Top 3

At the halfway mark, Ohio State senior Molly Kowal slowly began to build a dominant lead in the top heat. Kowal would then close her senior B1G career on top with a new championship and Iowa pool record at 15:43.17.

Kowal’s previous lifetime best was 15:44.61 from the 2019 NCAA meet. Her B1G title-winning time makes her the 17th-fastest U.S. performer in event history.

Coming in for a 2-3 sweep were Michigan’s Sierra Schmidt (15:48.53) and Kaitlynn Sims (15:49.83).

200 BACK – FINALS:

Top 3

Senior Beata Nelson claimed her final B1G title right from the start, clocking in a new pool record of 1:48.73. She was just 0.26s off her championship meet record of 1:48.47. This is now Nelson’s 3rd-straight individual title this week, after taking the 200 IM and 100 back earlier in the meet.

Taking second place was Northwestern’s Emma Lepisova (1:52.80), touching out Michigan’s Chloe Hicks (1:52.92) by 0.12s.

100 FREE -FINALS:

  • B1G Record: Siobhan Haughey (MICH) – 46.64
  • Meet Record: Siobhan Haughey (MICH) – 47.06
  • Pool Record: Rebecca Thompson – 48.28
  • NCAA ‘A’ Cut: 47.18
  • Defending Champion: Siobhan Haughey (MICH) – 47.06

Top 3

Michigan’s Maggie MacNeil went 3-for-3 with her Big Ten record time of 46.57, making her the 7th fastest performer in history. Ohio State’s Freya Rayner came in second place just 0.09s ahead of Michigan’s Daria Pyshnenko.

Ohio State’s four other swimmers finished 5-6-7-8, worth 94 points total.

200 BREAST – FINALS:

  • B1G Record: Lilly King (IU) – 2:02.90
  • Meet Record: Lilly King (IU) – 2:04.03
  • Pool Record: Emma Reaney – 2:05.85
  • NCAA ‘A’ Cut: 2:06.84
  • Defending Champion: Lilly King (IU) – 2:05.14

Top 3

It’s another first for the Big Ten women’s 200 breast as Northwestern’s Calypso Sheridan became the newest champion, clocking in a 2:06.85. The IU Hoosiers finished 2-3, led by Noelle Peplowski (2:07.73) and Emily Weiss (2:07.73).

Finishing in fourth place was Michigan’s 100 breast B1G champion Miranda Tucker, also staying under 2:08 at 2:07.97.

200 FLY – FINALS:

  • B1G Record: Vanessa Krause (MICH) – 1:53.31
  • Meet Record: Gia Delasandro (IU) – 1:53.95
  • Pool Record: Dakota Luther – 1:55.19
  • NCAA ‘A’ Cut: 1:53.20
  • Defending Champion: Kathrin Demler (OSU) – 1:55.23

Top 3

Northwestern’s Miriam Guevara challenged Michigan’s Olivia Carter during the first 100. However, Carter quickly accelerated away from Guevara to earn another Michigan Saturday win. Carter’s time of 1:53.28 broke the B1G, championship meet, and Iowa pool records.

Michigan teammate Victoria Kwan touched 0.14s ahead of Guevara for a Wolverine 1-2 finish at 1:54.17. Guevara settled for third place at 1:54.31.

Topping the top five were Ohio State’s Kathrin Demler (1:54.44) and Michigan’s Vanessa Krause (1:54.61).

Platform Diving – FINALS:

  • B1G Record: Jessica Parratto (IU) – 424.45 points
  • Meet Record: Jessica Parratto (IU) – 424.45 points
  • Pool Record:
  • Defending Champion: Jessica Parratto (IU) – 394.40 points

Top 3

  • GOLD: Markie Hopkins (Northwestern)- 285.45 points
  • SILVER: Maycey Vieta (Purdue)- 279.65 points
  • BRONZE: Maggie Merriman (Purdue)- 277.95 points

400 FREE RELAY – TIMED FINALS:

  • B1G Record: Michigan – 3:08.07
  • Meet Record: Michigan – 3:10.29
  • Pool Record: Michigan – 3:11.94 *new
  • NCAA ‘A’ Cut: 3:14.97
  • Defending Champion: Michigan – 3:10.29

Top 3

  • GOLD: Michigan (MacNeil, Carter, Tucker, Pyshnenko)- 3:11.94 *pool record
  • SILVER: Ohio State (Jurkovic-Perisa, Petrak, Fulmer, Rayner)- 3:13.06
  • BRONZE: Wisconsin (Hosack, Nelson, Palmer, Doty)- 3:13.21

Michigan led the race from start to finish, beginning with Maggie MacNeil‘s 46.94 lead-off for the Wolverines. Into the second exchange, Wisconsin’s Beata Nelson split a 46.98 to put the Badgers into top-3 contention.

Into the final leg, it was Michigan’s Daria Pyshnenko who anchored the Wolverines to a new Iowa pool record and B1G title time of 3:11.94. Ohio State finished second at 3:13.06 while Wisconsin held in for bronze at 3:13.21.

Final Team Scores

  1. Ohio State — 1503.5
  2. Michigan — 1306.5
  3. Indiana — 964
  4. Northwestern — 907.5
  5. Wisconsin — 734
  6. Minnesota — 617
  7. Purdue — 602
  8. Penn State — 517.5
  9. Iowa — 430
  10. Nebraska — 385
  11. Rutgers — 291
  12. Michigan State — 203
  13. Illinois — 193

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Drama King
4 years ago

Off note.
Calypso Sheridan might be the most versatile swimmer in ncaas right now. She literally does everything.

Swimobserve1
Reply to  Drama King
4 years ago

Nelson is an absolutely amazing athlete. Betting she swam Big 10’s with little if any rest. Sheridan is also truly amazing. We are going to see some fabulous swims from these women at NCAAs and after.

spectatorn
4 years ago

Just noticed and it’s crazy NCAA A cut for 200 fly is faster than B1G record

frizzaly
4 years ago

FIVE under last year’s winning time in the 2fly

Sunny Cal
4 years ago

Feel bad For Beata Nelson.
She won all of her 3 events handily, but did not beat any of her winning times/meet records from last year.
Maybe they are saving her real rest & taper for NCAA’s??

hookem91
Reply to  Sunny Cal
4 years ago

My guess is that her (and some of the other Wisco girls) training cycle is targeting OT’s, with only a smaller taper for NCAAs/B1Gs.

Klorn8d
Reply to  Sunny Cal
4 years ago

No reason for her to rest for big tens, she’ll be faster at ncaas. You definitely don’t need to feel bad for her

Sunny Cal
Reply to  Klorn8d
4 years ago

She could have been swimmer of the meet her senior year. Instead it’s going to a sophomore who swims for MI named Maggie….

Bignowhere
Reply to  Sunny Cal
4 years ago

Priorities, man. Priorities.

SkiSki
Reply to  Sunny Cal
4 years ago

Or you know she could actually be saving her full rest for NCAA’s instead

ArtVanDeLegh10
Reply to  SkiSki
4 years ago

There’s no reason to be at her best for Big 10s. She was great at NCAAs last year and I’d expect the same this year. When you’re winning and breaking individual NCAA events/records, you typically don’t fully rest for your conference meet.

SkiSki
Reply to  ArtVanDeLegh10
4 years ago

Exactly

hookem91
4 years ago

Is anyone else having a problem with the live results?

B1G fan
4 years ago

Is anyone else having a hard time getting the livestream up? It seems to not be on tonight?

Bula
Reply to  B1G fan
4 years ago

It’s on fox sports tonight 👎🏼

LadyLeanne76
4 years ago

I expect Ohio State just like Indiana last year to win the meet but for Michigan to do better at NCAA’s, Michigan seems more built for NCAA than BIG10 while Ohio State is the opposite

Buddy2
Reply to  LadyLeanne76
4 years ago

I hear losing big tens two years in a row really gets you ready for ncaas. Especially when you star swimmer might not go to get ready for canadian olympic trials.

LadyLeanne76
Reply to  Buddy2
4 years ago

Michigan lost Big tens last year, finished 3rd while Indiana who won the big ten finished 9th. I can see it happening again, and McNeil has already said she will be at NCAA’s here locally, I don’t know where you get she won’t be

About Nick Pecoraro

Nick Pecoraro

Nick has had the passion for swimming since his first dive in the water in middle school, immediately falling for breaststroke. Nick had expanded to IM events in his late teens, helping foster a short, but memorable NCAA Div III swim experience at Calvin University. While working on his B.A. …

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