Minnesota vs. Indiana is the developing story of the 2013 Women’s Big 10 Championships, but Wisconsin’s Ivy Martin is the swimmer to watch in the women’s 50 free after her 21.84 record breaking performance in prelims. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. Martin has been posting 22 lows all season, and now she is the first woman in Big 10 history to dip under the 22 second barrier.
Women’s 200 Freestyle Relay Final
Minnesota’s Becca Weiland, Erin Caflisch, Blake Zeiger and Lauren Votava took the win in 1:28.43. This Minnesota freestyle relay was very good and very young last year, and they still are this season, with a freshman, two sophomores, and a junior. Caflisch split 21.90 on the 2nd leg, and nobody was slower than 22.20 in a very well-balanced relay. This shaved .03 off of the Wisconsin record set last season.
Minnesota didn’t win a single relay at last year’s Big Ten Championships, and now have already taken two out of three.
Penn State followed up with a 1:28.96, seeing immediate dividends from Maryland transfer Carolyn Fittin who swam the 2nd leg in their fastest split of 21.99; and Wisconsin took 3rd, lead by Ivy Martin in a 21.89 leadoff, totaling 1:29.24.
Purdue senior Lauren Gustafson was the fastest split of the entire field with a 21.81 as they took 4th.
Women’s 500 Freestyle Final
While Indiana’s Lindsay Vrooman improved on her 4:38.40 prelim swim, turning in a 4:35.41 for the win, it was Minnesota’s Kiera Janzen who continued to surprise the crowd, touching just behind Vrooman in 4:35.70. Janzen turned a lot of heads this morning in the prelim when she cut 8 seconds off her season-best, and she somehow found another four seconds to drop. Both swimmers seam huge best times, and both continue good middle distance traditions for their respective teams.
In that stroke, for all of the great middle-distance swimmers who have come through these programs and this conference, those are school records for both swimmers, and a new Big Ten Championship Record for Vrooman. The old mark belonged to Nikki White, in 4:37.38.
Minnesota freshman Sam Harding swam a great race, touching in 4:40.42 for 3rd. Penn State freshman Alyson Ackman won the B-Final in 4:42.11, improving nearly six seconds off her prelim swim. That was more of the swim we expected from her in this meet, after coming in as the top overall seed. You can expect to see her in the Big 10 final next year, as a big part of Penn State’s future in both the sprints and distance events.
Women’s 200 IM Final
Minnesota sophmore, Tori Simenec, edged Penn State’s Merritt Krawczyk by seven one-hundredths of a second in the 200 IM final. Simenec hit the wall in 1:57.11, a blink ahead of Krawczyk’s 1:57.18. Krawczyk was a surprise Olympic Trials semi finalist in the long course version of this race. Teammate Chelsea Weedman put her best race down this morning to quality first. In the final, she was six tenths off that swim finishing in 1:58.12.
The success of Penn State, along with Michigan’s Courtney Beidler, really was big for Minnesota as it pushed Indiana’s top two to 5th and 7th. Meanwhile, Minnesota moved up to the top three spots in the B Final, lead by Breaststrokers Haley Spencer and Kierra Smith in 1:58.57 and 1:59.29 respectively, to win the event scoring despite being outnumbered in the A final.
Women’s 50 Freestyle Final
After becoming the first women in Big 10 Championship history to dip under 22 seconds, Wisconsin’s Ivy Martin essentially swam the same race tonight, touching the wall just two hundredths off her recording breaking swim this morning, 22.86. Penn State senior Paige Whitmire followed up with a solid 22.22, edging Minnesota’s Becca Weiland, who got third ripping a 22.24.
Minnesota loaded the 50 freestyle final with three women tonight, Weiland, Caflisch and Zeiger, which should push the Gophers into a comfortable lead after the Women’s one meter diving. They took a 45-1 advantage in that 50 free alone.
Women’s 1-Meter Final
After a 2012 season where the top divers in this conference were spread out among a number of teams, 2013 will see a return to somewhat of a normalcy with the more traditional diving powers taking over. Minnesota, Indiana, and Purdue accounted for the enter Final of this women’s 1-meter, with Minnesota junior Maggie Keefer improving upon her runner-up finish last year for a 351.45 point victory on the 1-meter. Purdue’s Mackenzie Tweardy took 2nd in 325.40. Indiana were good for 3rd-and-4th with Katie Hillman and Amy Cozad both just beating out Minnesota’s Katy Ettermann, but the Gophers again outscored Indiana in this event.
Live results.
PDF of results with splits here.
Team Standings after day 2
Minnesota jumped into a monster lead in this meet, and
1. University of Minnesota 303.5
2. Indiana University 211.5
3. Pennsylvania State University 175
4. Purdue University 142.5
5. Ohio State University 132
6. Wisconsin, University of 116.5
7. Michigan, University of 116
8. University of Nebraska-Lincoln 90
9. Northwestern University 79
10. University of Iowa 58
11. Michigan State University 34
12. University of Illinois 32