CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The Illinois swim and dive team is set to compete in the Big Ten Championships at Purdue in West Lafayette, Ind., on Feb. 21-24.
This will be the third time the Illini have competed in Morgan J. Burke Aquatics Center this season. Second-year head coach Jeana Kempe's squad has registered 18 top-10 program marks this year.
Junior Sydney Stoll broke her 100 IM school record (55.68) last weekend at the Louisville Invite. Joining her there were two freshmen, Gwen Bakker and Kylee Sessions, who each notched top-10 times. Bakker is now third in the 50 breaststroke (29.14), and Sessions is third in the 100 IM (57.81).
Stoll has had a busy season thus far. She broke the 100 butterfly school record earlier in the season (54.24) and recorded the program's sixth-fastest 50 backstroke (25.89) and seventh-fastest 100 backstroke (54.86) and 200 freestyle (1:48.72).
Junior Suvana Baskar clocked the school record 100 backstroke (53.66), which is also an NCAA B cut time. Sophomore Sara Jass scored top-10 program marks in the 200 breaststroke (second, 2:13.12), 100 IM (fourth, 58.33) and 400 IM (third, 4:15.46). Her 200 breaststroke and 400 IM are NCAA B cuts.
The 200 medley relay team of Baskar, Sessions, junior Logan Kuehne and senior Lily Olson broke the school record with a time of 1:39.37.
On the diving side, freshman Elle Crisostomo scored the program's eighth-highest platform dive with 215.35 points. Freshman Matilda Garcia is the only Illini diver to have NCAA B cuts on both the one-meter (271.20) and three-meter (287.35) boards.
Seniors Taylor Michael (293.55) and Brooke Michael (283.70) both have their B cuts on the three-meter boards. Freshman Bethany Mercer's 270.23 makes the cut on the one-meter boards, and freshman Dani O'Kelly rounds out the Illini divers in B cuts with a 284.93 on the three-meter boards.
