Oct. 26, 2003

Evanston, Ill. - The Fighting Illini swimming and diving team concluded a successful weekend with a second place finish at the Northwestern Relays held this afternoon in Evanston, Ill. Illinois' 182 points finished second to Northwestern's 208 and ahead of Wisconsin-Green Bay's 176.

"We dug ourselves a hole the first part of the meet with a disqualification, but I liked how we came back and fought to gain second place," Head Coach Sue Novitsky said. "I think they got that fire back after the slow start and showed what we are capable of doing when we are mentally sharp. We'll work on some things in practice this week that we didn't do today, but again I liked how we rebounded from the slow start."

The Orange and Blue earned four victories on the day in Evanston. The group of Meghan Farrell, Crystal McAdam, Christina Brunka, and Barbie Viney swam to a mark of 3:30.59 in the 400 free relay. The 1500 free relay team walked away with the win with a group that included Crystal McAdam, Britta Jansson and Kirsten Koepcke with a time of 15:05.63. Senior Ilkay Dikmen led the 200 free relay team that included Barbie Viney, Meghan Farrell and Christina Brunka to a win with a time of 1:36.25. Finally, the Illini wrapped up their fourth win in the 300 breast relay with Ilkay Dikmen, Kathryn Easey, and Trisha Lakatos swimming to a time of 3:14.91.

The Illini then return home next Saturday as they host Southern Illinois and Iowa State at 1 p.m. at IMPE pool.