NU places 11th at its first Big Ten Swimming and Diving Championships

After a rocky start to the Big Ten Championships, the Nebraska women's swimming and diving team managed to rebound this weekend.

As the races wound down on Saturday, Minnesota won the Big Ten Championships at the University of Iowa with a total team score of 680.5. The Huskers finished in 11th with a score of 82, ahead of Michigan State. Nebraska was only two points behind Illinois, who the Huskers dropped a close dual meet to earlier in the season.

While the Huskers had no swimmers and only one diver qualify for finals on the first day of individual competition, Nebraska was able to place athletes in the top 24 for seven individual events over the course of Friday and Saturday.  

Shannon Guy had the top finish for the Husker swimmers by finishing 11th in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 54.23. Guy later came back on Saturday to finish 15th in the 200-yard butterfly, coming in at 2:02.48.

Diving continued to be the Huskers' strength as they had two divers score in the women's platform diving event. Juniors Kaitlan Walker and Alyson Ramsey finished 11th and 16th by posting scores of 278.20 and 224.70, respectively.

Although no more Husker swimmers scored any points individually, others made it back to finals. Junior Hayley Martin finished 23rd in the 200-yard freestyle on Friday, touching in at 1:50.01. Two events later in the 100-yard backstroke, NU's Ellan Dufour finished 22nd with a time of 55.97.

Sophomore Bailey Pons swam a 16:34.75 in the timed finals of the 1,650-yard freestyle to finish in 19th place on Saturday. After missing out on finals for the 50-yard freestyle, junior Ariel Weech finished 19th in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 50.16.

The 400-yard medley relay team of Dufour, Kristin Strecker, Natalie Morris and Weech kicked things off on Friday night by finishing 11th at 3:45.98. Penn State got their first relay victory of the championships, swimming a 3:33.50.

The Huskers went out on a high note with a strong 10th place finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay, beating out Michigan State and Michigan. Martin, Weech, Pons and freshman Kelly Dunn combined for a time of 3:22.23. Wisconsin notched their third relay victory of the championships with a time of 3:16.12.

The competition at the Big Ten Championships was fierce for Nebraska, with this being their first opportunity to swim against many of the Big Ten's top teams. Next year's Big Ten Championships will be held February 20-23 at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center, giving the Huskers another year to prepare for a second chance at the teams of the Big Ten.

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