After Thursday's competition ended with Indiana in third place at the Big Ten Swimming and Diving Championships, IU Coach Ray Looze said that he wanted the team to come out strong in preliminaries on Friday.
The Hoosiers did just that, as Indiana will have swimmers and divers competing in every final heat come Friday night.
IU's best performance came in the 200-yard freestyle prelims, as three swimmers qualified for the finals. Senior Margaux Farrell led the way for the Hoosiers, as she finished first out of the 86 swimmers with a time of 1:45.76, a pool record at the Campus Wellness and Recreation Center at the University of Iowa. Seniors Brittany Strumbel and Courey Schaefer followed close behind in fourth and fifth, with all three posting NCAA B-Cut qualifying time. The three Hoosiers will have to contend with four Minnesota swimmers in the final heat, as the Gophers will try to extend their lead in the championships. Senior Nikki White and junior Taylor Wohrley will be swimming in the consolation heat.
Meanwhile, senior Allysa Vavra continued to have a strong meet, posting the strongest time in the 400 Individual Medley preliminaries by a 7.5 second margin. Vavra's time of 4:04.65 was the fourth fastest in IU history, as she will try to break her own record again tonight (she already owns all top five times). Freshman Dorina Szekeres finished 11 seconds faster than her seeded time, earning a spot in the final heat with a 4:13.26 time, the third-fastest out of any swimmer, and her career best by nearly 12 seconds.
The only other event in which IU had multiple top eight finishers was the 100-yard backstroke, where freshman Justine Ress won the final preliminaries heat and posted the third-fastest time of the day and career best (53.07), and Wohrley posting the fifth fastest time (53.37). The Hoosiers will also have two swimmers competing in the consolation heat for the 100 back, with freshman Cynthia Pammett and Szekeres both swimming after each posted career-best performances.
IU also had finals qualifiers in the 100 yard butterfly (sophomore Brenna MacLean), 100 yard breaststroke (junior Ashley Specht) and the 3-meter dive (senior Gabby Agostino).
The swimming and diving finals will start at 7:30 p.m. tonight, as the Hoosiers try to climb back into first place in the standings. IU (203 points) currently trails Minnesota (235) and Ohio State (222) in the competition.
