NU swimmers finish 6th at Big 12 Championships

The Nebraska swimming and diving record books are due for some changes after an impressive outing at the Big 12 Championships this weekend.


The team took home a sixth-place finish with 298 team points in Columbia, Mo.


"I think we performed pretty close to as well as we could have," said NU coach Pablo Morales. "It's just every other team there was good as well. It was a quality meet top-to-bottom."


Morales spoke all year about his squad progressively improving and then peaking at the Big 12 Championships, and that's exactly what the swimmers did.


In the seven sessions of the Big 12 Championships, the Cornhuskers recorded 82 career-best marks and posted 26 top-10 finishes in NU history.


"I think this weekend went well," said junior Mariah Hutchinson. "The overall result wasn't great, but we had some very good individual swims."


In the final session of the meet, Jenna Stroud and Jess Andrews improved their career-best marks that they had set earlier that day. Stroud posted a time of 50.41 and finished 14th overall. Andrews finished just behind Stroud in 15th with a time of 50.46.


In the 1650-yard freestyle finals, the Huskers put three in the top 13. Sophomore Brandie Kavalec led the way with a ninth-place finish and another career-best mark of 16:55.60.

For her third year in a row junior Kaitlin Arntz qualified for the A finals of the 200-yard breaststroke. In both her freshman and sophomore years, Arntz placed eighth. This year, Arntz swam a 2:16.64 to capture a seventh-place finish.

Hutchinson owned the Huskers' highest finish of the meet while recording her career-best mark and taking home a fourth-place finish with a time of 1:59.27.

"I feel like I could have done better," Hutchinson said. "I'm not totally satisfied, but I'm not totally disappointed."


Hutchinson achieved an NCAA provisional-qualifying time.

Sophomore Kelsey Grushecky also nabbed a provisional-qualifying time within the 200-yard butterfly. The time of 1:59.36 will go down as a career-best and fourth all-time in NU history.


In the final event of the meet, Nebraska came up just short of a fourth-place finish. The team of Hutchinson, Andrews, Stroud and Jenny Toler posted yet another career-best mark with a time of 3:20.13.

NU diving ace Courtney Jolly competed in both the one- and three-meter dives but pulled herself out of the platform dive because of an ankle injury. Jolly placed 12th in the three-meter dive and 15th in the one-meter.


The conference championships mark the end of the Huskers' 2008-2009 season and the final swim for five seniors. C.J. Bray, Christina Yemm, Stroud, Jolly and Toler all posted career-best marks in their last meet as Huskers.


"They were so great," Morales said. "I think the one thing that will stick out about this class is that they were so sincere in their work ethic and their approach to the team."

jaysloan@dailynebraskan.com