University of Illinois
Ohio State Invitational
Swimming and Diving finish fifth at OU Invitational
December 5, 2005 | Swimming & Diving
Dec. 5, 2005
The Fighting Illini Women's Swimming and Diving team held on to fifth place (325 points) in the Ohio State Invitational this weekend. Minnesota was the overall winner with 1,254.50 points followed by Penn State, Ohio State and Michigan State.
On the final day of the three day competition, junior Barbie Viney added yet another NCAA `B' qualifying time, this time in preliminaries of the 100 freestyle in a time of 50.75. Viney later went on to win the event in the finals in 50.98.
Freshman standout Marissa Clapp captured third place nearly beating out senior Bridget McCoy of Minnesota by tenths of a second in the 200 breast in a time of 2:20.66. In B-finals, Kathryn Easey placed 13th, Kelly Funk 17th and Samantha Leibold 18th.
Britta Jansson recorded a lifetime best in the 200 fly, finishing 8th in 2:07.56.
Three Illini finished in the B-final of the 200 back final. Caroline Moore finished 11th in a time of 2:08.24 with Mallory Craft right behind her in 12th place in 2:08.98. Freshman Beverly Halloran followed in 18th place.
The 400 free relay consisting of Meghan Farrell, Katie Theissen, Christina Brunka and Barbie Viney finished fourth in a time of 3:29.64.
Head Coach Sue Novitsky was pleased with how her Illini performed.
"Today was tough day of competition. Preliminaries and finals were only three hours apart and you could tell that the three-day meet was wearing kids down, but we had some great second swims. As a team, we came back and raced well. I'm happy that our team stepped it up."
This meet marks the end of competition for the '05 season. The Illini will continue to work out and improve during the holiday season and break with their annual winter break trip to Curacao. The team returns to action January 13th in Ann Arbor, Michigan for a tri-meet with Michigan, Notre Dame and Washington.
