Final Results
Champaign, Ill. – The Fighting Illini swimming and diving team held its annual Orange and Blue Intra-Squad exhibition Friday at the ARC Pool. The Orange team defeated the Blue team, 117-98, reclaiming bragging rights after a 23-point defeat a year ago. The Illini set two meet records on the night, including one pool record.
"I liked the energy of the group overall," said head coach Sue Novitsky. "Even though they were on different teams, they were still supporting each other. That's a big thing we've been working on, team dynamic-wise. A lot of the upperclassmen were helping the freshmen out too. Even though it's an intra-squad meet, it's still a competition and they're very competitive people. You could tell a lot of the freshmen were a little bit nervous, since it was their first time racing with an Illinois cap on. Just to see that mentorship happening is fantastic."
The teams remained close throughout the meet, as the Orange team came away with five event wins, while the Blue team won four events. The meet was highlighted by junior Samantha Stratford breaking the meet and ARC Pool record in the 200 IM with a time of 2:00.09. The Ontario native also came away with the meet record in the 100 breaststroke by finishing with a time of 1:04.97.
"[Stratford] has been training great, and she loves to compete," said Novitsky. "It's just fun to see her again, and step up and race. It's fun to see the whole team step up and race across the board."
On the boards, Madeline Kuhn won both the one-meter and three-meter diving competition, finishing with scores of 215.00 and 187.00, respectively.
"I thought in the middle of the pool we looked very strong," said Novitsky. "Our fitness level is coming around really well. Sometimes those turns and details you see a little bit of panic in, and we just got to make sure to calm them down so they can really put together a much cleaner race and make it a lot easier on themselves coming into the home stretch. We have a long way to go, but very good first steps."
Next Up
The Illini will welcome both Michigan State and Marshall to the ARC Pool on Friday, October 21. Meet competition will begin at 5 p.m.
