When IU swimming announcer Owen Johnson began his introductions Friday night at the Big Ten Championships, he made the claim that it was a two-team race for the Championship between IU and Minnesota. The IU swimmers did all they possibly could to make that a one-team race Friday night.
At the beginning of the day, the Hoosiers held a 279-236 lead. It would grow from there.
A third place finish in the 400-yard medley relay got the Hoosiers off to a hot start, and they didn't cool down. Junior Allysa Vavra, who set a Big Ten record in her midday preliminary race for the 400 IM, broke her own record just hours later, taking first in the event. Teammate senior Ashley Jones - who placed second behind Vavra in Thursday's 200-yard IM - finished third.
"Ashley and I have been training together since I've been here," Vavra said. "She's been my training partner in IM and kind of like a role model, a person I look up to. It's her last year and I'm glad that we both did really well."
IU was up 311-270.
The 200-yard freestyle, in which five of the eight spots in the final were held by IU swimmers, yielded a second place finish for junior Brittany Strumbel and third place for junior Margaux Farrell.
The Hoosiers led 372-298.
History was made in the 100-yard breaststroke, but not by a Hoosier. Minnesota senior Jillian Tyler, like Vavra, set a Big Ten record with her prelim time and promptly re-broke her record hours later. For Tyler, though, it meant even more. She became just the 12th swimmer in Big Ten history to win an event four consecutive seasons with her victory. No big deal was made of it; she humbly accepted her award and the meet moved on.
The Hoosiers still led 473-344.
In the final swimming event of the night, sophomore Taylor Wohrley took second place in the 100-yard backstroke.
IU was up 490-365 heading into the 3-meter diving finals.
Minnesota ended the night with a victory from junior Kelci Bryant and the Hoosiers ended with a third place finish from freshman Laura Ryan.
The Hoosiers closed the night with a commanding 531-395 lead. They know the meet isn't over and can't wait to improve on an already impressive Championship showing with finals beginning at 6:30 p.m. Saturday night.
"We keep building momentum off each other and it can only get better tomorrow," Vavra said. "Our third day is really good as well, so it'll just get better at this point"
