Day Two of the TYR Invitational in Evanston, Illinois began with a very impressive showing in the women’s 400 IM right from the get-go. Northwestenr’s Ellen Stello posted a career best time and NCAA B cut in the 400 IM with a winning time of 4:18.20. Notably, not far behind Stello was Air Force’s Kim Davis (4:19.78), the champion from last night’s 200 IM, and this sets the scene for a great showdown in early swimming action tonight.
Michigan State roared out to an early lead in the men’s meet on Day 1, and it looks like their assault will continue on the second night of competition. Even though NU junior Jordan Wilimovsky reeled in the top spot in the 400 IM this morning with a 3;57.90, there are 5 MSU swimmers in the A final and an additional three more in the B final. Immediately behind the top Wildcat is Mitch Strahlman in a 3:58.26 so this could prove to be another tight finish in the finals session. Wilimovsky has proven his resilience and closing speed time and time again though, so it will not be an easy win for the Spartans tonight in this race.
The Wildcats do have plenty of fight left in them though, and their first chance to put up some big points comes in the 100 fly where Andrew Jovanovic (48.61), Almog Olshtein (49.42), Alex Snarski (49.85), and Mark Ferguson (49.90) all placed in the top 8 (with 4 more Wildcats slated to compete in the B final as well). However, the top seed entering tonight is Alex Trompke (48.35) of Michigan State and he was in good form in last night’s medley relay on his leadoff backstroke split.
The Northwestern women will be especially strong in the 200 free tonight with 6 competitors in the A final. Leading the helm is sophomore Annika Winsnes (1:48.65) with a sizable 1.5 seconds lead over the rest of the field. Davis of Air Force is 2.5 seconds back with a 1:51.12, and as she is an individual event winner already, she is the best chance to break up the NU stranglehold on the top 3 spots in the race.
Another B cut came in the form of MSU’s Shelby Lacy’s 1:02.14 in the 100 breast to lead all morning competitors. She is less than a second ahead of NU’s Julianne Kurke (1:02.89), but Lacy had an especially explosive swim last night in a commanding 50 breast win so look for her to be in good form again in the top heat.
Perhaps the most impressive swim of the morning came from MSU’s Alec Kandt as he blitzed the field with a 54.26 to hold a 2 second lead over all scoring qualifiers in the 100 breast. He was out in a 25.34 (a full second ahead of anybody else) and cleared the NCAA B standard of 55.39 by over a second en route to posting a lifetime best time as well.
The final B cuts of the morning came in the women’s 100 back where MSU freshman Chanel Bonin (54.92) posted the top preliminary time, though she only has a tenth of a second lead ahead of NU’s Lacey Locke (55.02). Another close finish may be at hand in the center of the pool when they match up in the A final.
Diving action saw all competitors from the preliminary session qualifying for the finals session again tonight but MSU’s Madeline Sewell (278.35) and NU’s Andrew Cramer (340.90) were the top performers this morning, The women competed on 1 meter while the men competed on 3 meter.
