COLUMBIA, Mo. – With two days of the Missouri Invitational complete, the Illinois Swimming and Diving Team sits in second place after competition finished on Friday.
"Overall this was an outstanding finals session for the team," head coach Sue Novitsky said. "On the day we had 11 lifetime best times, one NCAA B qualifying time and 10 changes to the top ten record books. I thought we were feeling out the meet yesterday and today we came to fully compete. I have a team of some very tough young ladies. Multiple athletes had to compete in as many as four or five races today. Each time they were able to refocus and get themselves prepared for the next challenge. They were able to take an objective look at how they competed and figure out what to work on for the next race of for their finals swim. That is a huge step for this team, to keep working on the process and not just focus on the final result."
Leading the pack is Missouri with 927 points. The Fighting Illini are in second with 421 points, followed by Wyoming (409), Drury (355) and UNLV (219). Competing in diving events only, LSU (55), Nebraska (39), Wisconsin (29), Texas A&M (15), Iowa State (10), North Dakota State, Northern Colorado and SMU round out the field.
Samantha Stratford finished in third place in the 400 IM, turning in a time of 4:15.09, an NCAA B cut and the second-best mark in program history. Gabriele Serniute turned in a time of 1:02.84 in the 100 breast, placing seventh in the event and recording Illinois' fifth-best time in program history.
In the 100 back, Jamie Kolar placed 10th with a time of 56.41, good for seventh best in Illinois team history. Gabbie Stecker's 50 back split of 26.85 in the 200 medley relay was seventh-best in program history, as her relay team which included Stratford, Megan Vuong and Kristin Anderson turned in the ninth-best time in Illinois' history overall, and placed fifth in the event with a time of 142.95. The 800 free relay of Amelia Schilling, Stecker, Audrey Rodawig and Stratford placed first, clocking a 7:18.82, the third-best mark in Illinois' history.
"We have our work cut out for us tomorrow with a tight team race to hold onto second place," Novitsky said. "I am excited to see how the entire team keeps responding to the challenges in front of them."
The last day of the Missouri Invitational will be Saturday, with prelims beginning at 10 a.m. and finals set for 6 p.m.
