Kelsey Drake Crushes Iowa School Record in Big Ten Time Trial

2020 WOMEN’S B1G CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Swimming & Diving
• When: Wednesday, February 19th to Saturday, February 22nd | Prelims 11am | Finals 6:30pm (6pm Saturday)
• Where: Campus Recreation & Wellness Center, Iowa City, Iowa (Central Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Indiana University Hoosiers (1x) (results)
• Live Results
• Streaming: Big Ten Network
• Championship Central: here
• Fan Guide
• Estimated NCAA Invite Times
• NCAA ‘A’ Cuts

After the first 2 scoring events of the 2020 Women’s Big Ten Swimming & Diving Championships, there were a handful of time trial races. Among the highlights was a 59.43 from Northwestern junior breaststroker Sophie Angus. That time is about half-a-second faster than what it would have taken to qualify for last year’s NCAA Championship meet, and makes her the 4th-best breaststroker in the Big Ten this season.

This follows up on a 26.62 breaststroke split for Angus in Wednesday’s 200 medley relay, which was the 5th-best split of the field.

The Indiana women and Penn State women also time-trialed 200 medley relays. Indiana swam 1:37.01 in that 200 medley, while Penn State swam a 1:37.10. For Indiana, that gives them a crucial NCAA “B” cut after they were disqualified in the scoring races on Wednesday evening when freshman breaststroker Emily Weiss left early. That relay originally touched in 1:36.29 before the disqualification. Weiss again cut her start very close, but this time with a .03 reaction time, Indiana was legal. Weiss split 26.60 in the time trial as compared to the 26.19 (with a -.09, so a .12 second start differential) in the scoring race. The rest of the Indiana relay had similar splits.

Penn State’s 1:37.10 was almost identical to their 1:37.09 in the scoring relay. They needed a 1:37.05 to hit the NCAA “B” standard.

Other Time Trial Results:

• Indiana’s Bailey Kovac swam a 2:12.23 in the 200 breaststroke while Northwestern senior Mary Erb swam a 2:12.42. Those are lifetime best swims in both events, including by more than 5 seconds for Erb.
• Wisconsin sophomore Mara Newman swam 1:54.41 in the 200 yard back. Her previous season-best time was a 1:55.77 done at the team’s mid-season invite. Last year, it took a 1:54.01 to earn an NCAA Championship invite.
• Iowa freshman Georgia Clark swam a 56.25 in the 100 yard back time trial. That’s a season-best time for her.
• Iowa junior Kelsey Drake swam a 1:55.89 in the 200 yard fly, while Indiana freshman Carla Gildersleeve swam a 1:56.03. Both of those times should make the Big Ten A final later in the meet: a 1:55.23 won the conference last season. It took a 1:56.18 to earn an NCAA Championship invite last season. Drake’s swim broke the Iowa school record of 1:57.87 that she set last year by almost 2 seconds