Nov. 23, 2003

Bloomington, Ind. - After two days of competition the University of Illinois swimming and diving team is in fifth place after two days at the Indiana Invitational. The Illini move up a spot, passing Big Ten foe Michigan State after trailing them day one. The host Indiana leads the Invitational with 582 points, Arkansas is in fourth place with 331, followed by the Illini with 310, and Michigan State is in sixth with 293.

"We had a good start Friday morning in the prelims and then let up a bit in the finals in the evening session which was disappointing," Head Coach Sue Novitsky. "Saturday was excellent though, I thought we really rebounded from Friday and had tremendous prelim and final outings. Almost all of our final times were better than in the prelims on Saturday, which shows that we are taking a good step in the right direction and are cleaning up the things we didn't do Friday."

On Friday, the relays took the spotlight for the Illini, as they would finish the 200 free in sixth and 400 IM in fourth. The 200 free relay squad featured Christina Brunka, Ilkay Dikmen, Meghan Farrell, and Barbie Viney swimming in a time of 1:46.75. The 400 IM team consisted of Christina Brunka, Crystal McAdam, Ilkay Dikmen, and Barbie Viney finishing with a time of 4:16.16.

Other good swims that took place on Friday were Barbie Viney in the 500 free finishing 11th with a time of 26.85. Kirsten Koepcke placed seventh in the 400 free with a time of 4:24.23, as did Crystal McAdam who also ended up seventh in the 200 IM with a time of 2:22.68.

Saturday was moving day for the Illini as the team moved forward in the standings and gained major points due to some fantastic swims. One of those fantastic swims came from Dikmen who raced to the first Illini victory of the Invitational in the 100 Breast in a time of 1:10.17. McAdam also had a great day for the squad as she finished the day with two great swims. The first was the 100 fly in which she finished sixth with a time of 1:03.81 and the second came in the 200 free as she again finished sixth swimming to a time of 2:04.35.

Illinois had other top finishers in the 200 free along with McAdam, as Koepcke finished just ahead of her teammate in fifth with a time of 2:04.14 and Viney brought up the rear of the trio in seventh place with a time of 2:04.87. The best finish for a relay team was the 200 IM relay that finished sixth with Brunka, Dikmen, McAdam, and Viney in a time of 1:57.48.

The Indiana Invitational finishes up on Sunday.