After day 1 of the Northwestern TYR invitational, the Michigan State men are in the lead. The Northwestern women lead the women’s team battle. Full results can be found here.
Northwestern:
EVANSTON, Ill. – A pool record, an NCAA ‘B’ qualifier and a first-place position was all in a day’s work for Northwestern on Friday at the first day of the TYR Invitational.
It was déjà vu for the Wildcats: at the TYR Invitational last year, they broke the same pool record in the 400 medley relay, which had previously stood for 17 years. One year later, the ‘A’ relay quartet of Lacey Locke (Carmel, Ind./Carmel), Julianne Kurke (Atlanta, Ga./Parkview), Maddy Sims (Downers Grove, Ill./Downers Grove) and Annika Winsnes(Singapore/United World College) swam a time of 3:41.92, breaking the record by three-tenths of a second.
Mary Warren (Hartland, Wis./Arrowhead) swam a season-best time of 22.98 in the 50 free, placing her faster than the NCAA ‘B’ qualification.
At the end of the first day, Northwestern led the six-team fidl with 351 points. Trailing them are Michigan State (349), Grand Canyon (254), UIC (152), St. Louis (102) and Truman State (102).
Day two of the TYR Invitational begins on Saturday at 9 a.m. with preliminaries. At 5 p.m., the events will pick up again for the finals sessions.
Friday Preliminaries
Starting the invitational off, the ‘Cats locked up two scoring spots in the 50 breast as Kurke and Warren placed seventh and eighth. Warren had to fight for that spot, winning a swim-off after the day’s preliminary competition to secure a spot in the championship finals. Northwestern’s Lindsay Adamski (Hartland, Wis./Arrowhead) and Katie Branch(Phoenix, Ariz./Horizon Honors) made their way into the bonus finals with 10th and 14th places, respectively. Two more Wildcats advanced to the finals as Peyton Greenberg(Louisville, Ky./duPont Manual) and Georgie Pettibone (Santa Rosa, Calif./Analy) earned a pair of spots in the bonus heat.
Olivia Rosendahl (Los Angeles, Calif./Immaculate Heart) performed in her typical fashion: a first place finish from the 3-meter springboard. Not only that, she scored 36 points better than the next-closest diver, Madeline Sewell of Michigan State. Behind her, Eryn Scannell(Grand Blanc, Mich./Grand Blanc) and Monique Demaisip (Norwalk, Calif./Gahr) notched 3-4 finishes to advance in the day’s competition. Mashel Hashem (Potomac, Md./Winston Churchill) joined her compatriots with the last spot in the championship final, scoring 251.15 points.
Locke — the Wildcats’ top sprint freestyler so far this year — crushed the competition in the 50 free with a first-place time of 25.78. Locke came back in the next women’s qualifier, the 200 IM, and again broke into the championship final with a third-place swim of 2:05.44.Ellen Stello (Shorewood, Wis./Shorewood) also joined the cohort with an eighth-place time of 2:08.26. Postoll and Alex Grimes (Los Gatos, Calif./Los Gatos) bookended the entries into the ‘B’ heat later in the day.
A trio of Wildcats placed 3-4-5 in the 500 free qualifier, as Lauren Abruzzo (Denver, Colo./Kent Denver), Stello and Ellen Anderson (Montgomery Village, Md./Gaithersburg) all finished within a second and a half of each other. Sydney Modeas (East Amherst, N.Y./Clarence) narrowly missed a spot in the top-eight with a ninth-place time of 5:01.76.Emily Launer (DeKalb, Ill./Rosary) also earned a second swim with her 15th-place time of 5:05.22. A trio of NU swimmers — Megan Purdy (Boulder City, Nev./Boulder City), Aja Malone (Acworth, Ga./Allatoona) and Melissa Postoll (Acworth, Ga./Kennesaw Mountain) — swam times that were good for spots in the consolation finals.
The top two Northwestern swimmers in the 50 free this season performed up to par — Warren and Annika Winsnes (Singapore/United World College) finished 3-4 with times of 23.62 and 23.65, respectively. Sims earned a spot in the non-scoring ‘C’ heat with her 24.48 swim.
Friday’s Finals
The ‘Cats put their best foot foward to start the finals on Friday. In the 200 free relay, Northwestern’s ‘A’ quartet of Warren, Sims, Locke and Winsnes paced the competition with a first-place finish of 1:33.26 — the best time for Northwestern this season by nearly a second.
Both Kurke and Warren improved their prelim times in the 50 breast, as the two Wildcats finished third and sixth, respectively. Adamski dropped nearly a second off of her prelim time and secured a ninth-place finish in the event. She had the best time of the consolation crop and the fourth-best time overall. Branch trailed behind her with an 11th-place finish of 30.26.
Rosendahl took home her fourth-straight first-place finish from the 3-meter springboard, as she was awarded a finals score of 329.00. Her teammates Hashem (253.85) and Scannell (249.35) finished in third and fourth, respectively.
Northwestern had three top-five finishers in the 500 free, as Anderson, Stello and Abruzzo all swam sub-4:57 times. Abruzzo’s time of 4:56.99 was a season-best for her and Friday was Stello’s first time competing in the event all season. Modeas and Launer finished 1-2 in the consolation final, as they grabbed a cumulative of 16 points for the Wildcats. Both of the swimmers bested their previous top marks on the year.
In the shorter-than-usual 50 free event, Locke notched a first-place finish — just as she did in prelims — with a time of 25.22. The second place finisher, Iryna Glavnyk of Grand Canyon, was more than three-tenths of a second behind her. Locke came back out in the next event, the 200 IM, and touched in at 2:03.88, a third-place time. Stello trailed just behind her, swimming a fifth-place time of 2:05.68. Postoll led the pack in the ‘B’ heat, swimming a season-best 2:04.01 time. Grimes was right on her coattails with a 10th-place finish of 2:05.73.
Warren demolished her previous season-high time in the 50 free by four-tenths of a second, and earned herself an NCAA ‘B’ qualifier with her first-place time of 22.98. Winsnes, who finished third, also lowered her season-high mark by four-tenths of a second, as she swam the 50 free in 23.34.
Wrapping up the day, the Northwestern ‘A’ 400 medley relay squad cruised their way to a pool record of 3:41.92. The group of Locke, Kurke, Sims and Winsnes — three of whom (Locke, Kurke and Winsnes) set the previous mark of 3:41.95 — was nearly two seconds faster than the second-place team, Grand Canyon ‘A.’
Grand Canyon:
EVANSTON, Ill. – The Grand Canyon University men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams had a strong start to the Northwestern TYR Invitational. The men’s squad is ranked second and the women’s third after the first day of competition.
For the men, Michigan State leads the meet with 379, followed by GCU’s 334, and Northwestern is in third place. For the women, Northwestern is in first at 351, then Michigan State at 349, and Grand Canyon at 254.
“Both the men and the women are off to a great start,” said head coach Steve Schaffer. “We have never competed against Big 10 teams before and we had hoped coming into the meet for the men to place in the top-three and the women to place fourth. At this point we are surpassing our expectations and hopefully we can continue to do that for the next two days.”
The men’s squad had four pool records today and claimed first in six events. Illya Glazunov,Jacob Lambros, Iegor Lytvenok, and Mazen Elkamash earned first in the 200-free relay (1:19.21). Lytvenok had the record in the 200-IM at 1:45.37, besting the pool record formerly held by Olympian Matt Grevers. It also ranks as an NCAA B time.
Mazen Elkamash bested the time in the 50-free at 19.74 to also have an NCAA B qualifying time. Rounding out the records was the 400-medley relay (3:10.32) which was earned byMark Nikolaev, Youssef Elkamash, Daniil Antipov, and Lambros. Their time was also a new team record.
“For the men to come to Northwestern and take down four pool records in one day is just fantastic,” continued Schaffer. “We created quite a bit of buzz since people from this part of the country have never really seen us compete before.”
Both Lambros and Glazunov had NCAA B qualifying times in the 50-free at 19.87 and 20.14, respectively. Nikolaev tied the team record in 50-back and won the title at 22.39. Yousseff Elkamash earned the team record in 50-breast, winning the event 24.42.
For the women’s squad, Iryna Glavnyk earned the title in the 200-IM at 2:01.24, which was an NCAA B qualifying time. Vangelina Draganova took first in the 50-breast (29.15).
Glavnyk also took second in 50-back (25.45), while Jovanna Koens had a time of 23.20 in the 50-free.
In diving, the men’s team competed in the one-meter while the women’s competed in the three-meter. Michael Bidak had a second place finish with 299.45 in the finals, while the women were led by Menna Elmidany‘s 229.60 in the three-meter.
“Our divers really are stepping it up,” said Schaffer. “All four guys scored for us and three of the four women scored as well. Mike led the men with a second place finish in the one-meter event and Menna led the women with a seventh place finish. It is great to see what a great job Coach Eldridge is doing with the diving program.”
“We did not rest a lot for this meet, so it is great to see how well our kids are doing and give us great confidence that we will do even better at the WAC Championships in February,” concluded Schaffer.
The meet will continue tomorrow at 8 a.m. in Evanston, Ill. Links to live stats and a full recap will be available at www.gculopes.com.
Michigan State:
EAST LANSING, Mich. – After the first day of the prestigious TYR Northwestern Invite, the Michigan State men and women’s swimming and diving teams had a solid debut. After the first day of action, the Spartan men sit atop the six-team standings with 379 points, while the MSU women are in second with 349 points, just two points behind leader and host Northwestern.
“It was a good night. We had a couple kids win some events which was cool, and had a few near misses. It was a good night and a good way to get it started. We had a lot of kids do some really nice work,” MSU head coach Matt Gianiodis said.
In 3-meter diving, junior Madeline Sewell continued her stellar fall, finishing second with a score of 329.00, earning 20 points. Freshman Morgan Wellenzohn finished fifth (233.40), while freshman Heidi Surdyk was sixth (232.85).
In the 200 freestyle relay, the Spartans finished second with a time of 1:33.93 just behind Northwestern’s time of 1:33.26. Sophomore Racheal Bukowksi, junior Sarah Love, senior Emily Parsons and freshman Courtney Aycock touched the wall with a time of 1:33.93.
The relays continued to be strong throughout the first night as the Spartans were third in the 400-yard medley relay (3:45.44). Sophomore Madison Nowak, junior Kennedy Cutler, Love and Aycock earned 32 points for MSU.
Cutler earned 17 points for the Spartans by taking second in the 50-yard breaststroke with a time of 29.23. Michigan State also had another strong showing in the 50-yard backstroke with three swimmers finishing in the top five. Nowak was third (25.93), whileCathryn Armstrong ended the race fourth (26.08) and freshman Brina Kari was fifth (26.41).
On the men’s side, junior Brennan LaBar captured the 1-meter diving title. LaBar won with a score of 313.30 which is the best score for a Spartan so far this season, topping his previous high of 302.99.
Junior Adam Henley won the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:27.79, which was the fastest time for a Spartan this season. MSU captured three of the top four times and six of the top eight in the 500 free. Sophomore Joe Szczupakiewicz was second with a season-high score of 4:28.57.
In the 200-yard IM, Tal Hanani was second behind Grand Canyon’s Iegor Lytvenok with a time of 1:49.71. Senior Nathaniel Weeks was fourth, touching the wall with a time of 1:50.59.
The men’s relays also had a solid night finishing second in the 400-yard medley relay, as sophomore Alex Trompke, junior Alex Kandt, senior Jacob Moore and sophomore Lachlan McLeish touched the wall with a time of 3:18.25. In the 200-yard freestyle relay, MSU was third with as sophomore Nick Leshok, freshman Gabe Whitaker, Moore and sophomore Evan Holzgen finished with a time of 1:21.83.
Saturday’s second day of action begins at 9 a.m. (ET) with the finals slated to start at 5 p.m. for the events of the 200 medley relay, the 400 IM, the 100 fly, the 200 free, the 100 breast, the 100 back and the 800 free relay.
Truman State:
EVANSTON, Ill. – – A frenzy in the 500 free, resulting in four NCAA B-cuts, highlighted day one at the Northwestern (Ill.) University TYR Cup, as the Truman men’s and women’s swimming teams combined for eight B-cuts in NU’s Norris Aquatic Center.
In the six-team competition featuring Truman and five NCAA Div. I programs, the Bulldog women accumulated 102 points to tie St. Louis University for fifth-place, while the men picked up 67 points and sit sixth through day one action.
Highlights on the day included the Bulldog women’s 200 free relay squad that posted the current No. 1 time in NCAA Div. II this season with a B-cut mark of 1:34.66. Nikki Sisson, Alison Strickler, Jamie Fitzpatrick, and Hannah Nicks combined to finish just 1.4 seconds back of first-place Northwestern and less than seven-tenths of a second back of both Michigan State and Grand Canyon (Ariz.).
The other top event for the Bulldog women was the 500 free, which included improved or first-time B-cuts for Emma Barnett (5:00.27; 6th place), Kortney Betz (5:02.19; 13th place), Sisson (5:02.61), and Jasmine Roghair (5:05.04). Sisson added a third B-cut of the day with a fifth-place finish in the 50 free (23.81) and was joined by Strickler’s B-cut mark of 23.95 as well in the event.
On the men’s side, JT Thayer recorded the Bulldogs’ first B-cut of the season in the 500 free, touching with the seventh-fastest time in Div. II at the moment with a mark of 4:36.81. Neil Girmus was part of two sixth-place finishes on the night – doing so as an individual in the 50 Breast (26.13) as well as swimming anchor in the 200 free relay along with Sam Heveroh, George Dowdy, and Austin Baker with a time of 1:24.75.
On Saturday, preliminaries begin at 9 a.m. and finals commence at 5 p.m. for the events of the 200 medley relay, the 400 IM, the 100 fly, the 200 free, the 100 breast, the 100 back, and the 800 free relay.
Event Preview – Thursday, Nov. 19, 2015
KIRKSVILLE – – The biggest event of the fall 2015 schedule is on tap for the nationally-ranked Truman State University men’s and women’s swimming teams this weekend, as a three-day meet against five NCAA Div. I programs will kick off on Friday at the TYR Cup in Evanston, Ill.
This season marks the third straight year that head coach Ed Pretre has taken his two squads to the Northwestern University campus for the TYR Cup, which will feature the Bulldogs, host Wildcats, fellow Big Ten member Michigan State University, the University of Illinois-Chicago, St. Louis University, and Grand Canyon (Ariz.) University. Action begins at 9 a.m. each day with preliminary competition, with the finals each night set for a 5 p.m. first event.
The Bulldogs, who are ranked No. 12 (women) and No. 24 (men) in the first set of CSCAA top-25 Div. II national rankings, bring 13 top-10 seedings into the weekend’s festivities. Both squads used the TYR Cup a season ago as a great chance to earn NCAA qualifying standards, as, a season ago, the teams combined for 20 NCAA-B cuts during the three-day meet. This season, the Bulldog women already have three NCAA-B cuts, as sophomore Nikki Sisson holds one in both the 50 free (24.01; 9th-fastest in NCAA Div. II) and 200 free (1:52.10; 5th-fastest in NCAA Div. II), as does freshman Emma Barnett in the 1000 free (10:23.57; 9th-fastest in NCAA Div. II).
A reminder for fans that an NCAA A-cut time guarantees a place in a heat at the 2016 NCAA Div. II Swimming & Diving Championships, while an NCAA B-cut time makes a swimmer eligible, however does not guarantee a spot in a preliminary heat at the Championships.
This page will be continually updated throughout the weekend with recaps and results. For more information, please visit one of the links at the top of the story which include the full schedule of events, top 2015-16 times by Bulldog swimmers this season, and NCAA Div. II A- and B-cut standard times per event.
Swimming news courtesy of Northwestern, Grand Canyon, Michigan State, and Truman State Swimming & Diving.