University of Illinois
Big Ten Championships (Swim)
Illini Finish Day One at Big Ten Championships
February 23, 2021 | Swimming & Diving
Recap
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — The Illinois swimming and diving team competed in day one of the 2021 Big Ten Championships Tuesday night. Day one included the 200 medley relay and 800 freestyle relay. The Illini had lifetime bests and top 10 finishes in both events. After day one, Illinois sits in 11th place with 64 points.
"We started off the meet with two strong relays with multiple best times and splits on both," said head coach Sue Novitsky. "The team had good energy tonight as a whole and they were ready to race. You could see some nerves and we just needed to relax and let ourselves compete like we have all season."
The Illini produced right out of the gate, as the 200 medley relay team of sophomore Athena Salafatinos, sophomore Divya Kale, junior Abigail Cabush and freshman Lily Olson recorded the fourth fastest relay time in program history (1:41.19). Salafatinos swam a career best and the third-fastest 50 backstroke by an individual in school history with a leadoff split of :25.36.
The 800 freestyle relay team of freshman Cara Bognar, Cabush, freshman Laurel Bludgen and sophomore Hannah Aegerter finished with a time of 7:23.95. Bognar's 200 freestyle split of 1:50.24 in the first leg of the 800 freestyle relay was a career best.
Day two of the event begins with preliminaries at 11 a.m. CT on Wednesday.
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