Oct. 8, 2011

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The Illini swimming and diving team kicked off the 2011-12 season with its annual Orange and Blue exhibition Saturday at the ARC Pool, as the Orange Team downed the Blue, 134-90, taking eight of 12 events.

"It was good to see the team step up and compete this morning," Illini head coach Sue Novitsky said. "We have been ramping up our training, and the meet allows us to identify areas that we need to address and just see how the athletes take advantage of a competitive situation. It is always nice to see records broken, but we have to keep moving forward and challenging ourselves to move out of the comfort zone."

The Illini swimmers broke three meet records on the day, as freshman Alison Meng, sophomore Erica Lynn, senior Brittany McGowan and junior Kimberly Kalenda teamed up to win the 200 medley relay for the Orange Team with a record-setting time of 1:48.37. McGowan also broke an individual meet record, finishing the 100 fly in 58.06, while Lynn set a new meet record in the 100 breast with a time of 1:06.32.

Other first-place finishers for the Orange were seniors April McKee in the 200 IM (2:11.50), Torrey Loper in the 500 free (5:11.61) and Britni Fisher in the one-meter dive (238.30) and junior Erin Lamb in the 100 free (53.54). The team of Lamb, Kalenda, McGowan and freshman Megan Marchuk also added a victory in the 400 free relay (3:33.47).

Meanwhile, the Blue Team captured four first-place finishes of its own with senior Kristen Manias in the 50 free (24.96), junior Tessa Adams in the three-meter dive (220.05) and sophomores Courtney Pope in the 200 free (1:55.96) and Jessica Holz in the 100 back (59.07).

"Now it is time for the team to get back to work and continue to prepare for our first meet against Northwestern in just under two weeks," Novitsky said. "Hopefully we will see another great turnout from our fans."

The Illini will open the regular season on Friday, Oct. 21 at 3 p.m. CT at the ARC Pool. Admission is free.