Jan. 24, 2004

Final Stats

Columbus, Ohio - Head Coach Sue Novitsky emphasized the importance of the relay in preparation for this weekend and it paid off. The Illini came up big and in thrilling fashion edging the Buckeyes relay team by .67 seconds to take the final event and win the meet by a score of 178.5-174.5. Illinois needed to win the last event of the meet, the 200 free relay, to beat Ohio State and sweep the dual meet. In the other contest, the Orange and Blue overmatched Iowa 215-134. This is Illinois' first sweep in a Big Ten dual meet since 1997-98, when the Illini beat Iowa and Indiana. Illinois now moves to 6-2 overall on the season and is 2-1 against Big Ten competition on the year.

"To win both of these meets today and in thrilling fashion is a huge boast for this team," Head Coach Sue Novitsky. "The relays are always important and today was a great example of that. I am very proud of how they came together and finished this meet like they did."

The relay teams were everything to the Illini on Saturday as they won all four relay events. Still searching for the right combinations and improvement on exchanges, the coaches had to like what they saw today. The meet winning team of Barbie Viney, Ilkay Dikmen, Christina Brunka, and Meghan Farrell in the 200 free won the event with a time of 1:36.00. In the 400 free relay Britta Jansson, Farrell, Brunka, and Viney won the event beating out the Buckeyes with a time of 3:30.02.

The relays also helped the Illini get off to a quick start, winning the first event of the day the 200 medley relay with the team of Brunka, Crystal McAdam, Dikmen, and Farrell in a time of 1:47.03. Illinois finished the four relay sweep by capturing the 400 medley relay by the team of Brunka, McAdam, Dikmen, and Viney in a time of 3:51.34.

Illinois finished the day winning seven individual events. Once again and for the fourth time this season Dikmen won both the 100 and 200 breast. She finished the 100 with a time of 1:04.01 and the 200 in 2:16.49, which was a NCAA "B" qualifying time. Joining Dikmen as multi-winner on the day was the freshman Viney who notched wins in the 200 free in a time of 1:51.91 and 100 free in 51.88.

McAdam possibly had her best day of the season as she won the 100 fly swimming to a time of 57.37. She also won the 200 IM in 2:07.14, just ahead of Dikmen who finished second in 2:08.01. McAdam gave a great performance in the 400 IM coming up just short of her third win of the day, but still managed to achieve a personal best time 4:25.12 and climb to third on Illinois' all-time list in the 400 IM.

Kirsten Koepcke had an exceptional performance in the 1000 free winning the race in a time of 10:11.49. Coach Novitsky called Koepcke's performance, "the best strategic swim of the season." Koepcke also finished second in the 500 free with a time of 4:58.84.

Benedict, who anchored the crucial meet winning 200 free relay, achieved a lifetime best in the 200 free event finishing sixth with a time of 1:55.29.

In the diving competition, Lisa Fish who broke a school record last week at Michigan in the 3-meter, finished fourth in the 3-meter with a score of 259.05. Freshman Jacki Bain finished seventh with a total of 249.15.

Fish and Bain finished fourth and sixth with scores of 256.50 and 220.95 respectively. The Illini divers finished 1-2 against Iowa in both the 1 and 3-meter dive events.

Illinois will head to the Big Ten Quad event next weekend in Madison, Wis., January 30-31. The Illini will face Minnesota, Purdue, and Wisconsin starting at 6 p.m. CST on Friday, January 30. Competion on Saturday will begin at noon CST.