Oct. 22, 2010
Site: Bloomington, Ind. (Counsilman Billingsley Aquatic Center)
Score: Indiana 158.5, Northwestern 135.5
Records: NU (0-1, 0-1 Big Ten), Indiana (1-0, 1-0 Big Ten)
Next NU Event: Nov. 5, 2010 -- vs. Purdue (Norris Aquatics Center), 5 p.m. CT
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Northwestern's highly touted freshman class made a big splash in its first collegiate meet Friday afternoon at Indiana, winning a pair of events and leading NU in several others during a 158.5-135.5 loss to the perennial power Hoosiers.
"We were competitive today and had good depth, just not enough on the top end to challenge in the meet overall," head coach Jimmy Tierney said. "We saw a lot of promising things from our freshmen and also got several career-best in-season times from the upperclassmen. The team finished their swims well, which is a good sign of our conditioning right now."
In the opening race of the 2010-11 season, Northwestern's 200 medley relay comprised of senior Liza Engstrom (Reno, Nev./Robert McQueen), Jenny Wilson (Bethesda, Md./Sidwell Friends School), Meghan Cavanaugh (Anchorage, Alaska/East Anchorage) and Taylor Reynolds (St. Louis, Mo./Webster Groves) placed second in a time of 1:44.95. Though the Wildcats trailed the Hoosiers from the start in the race, the result represented a .48 of a second drop in NU's time from last year's opening 200 medley effort.
A pair of Wildcat freshmen earned points in the first individual event of the year. Freshman Megan Goss (Brentwood, Tenn./Ravenwood) led a 3-4-5 finish for NU in the 1,000 freestyle, turning in a time of 10:10.44. Junior Beth Loe (Upper Arlington, Ohio/Upper Arlington) had a 10:17.51 to come in fourth and freshman Erin Sosdian (The Woodlands, Texas/Woodlands College Park) scored a point in fifth with a 10:19.07.
Freshman Jackie Powell (Madison, Wis./James Madison Memorial) was second in the 200 free with a 1:51.88 while junior Jacquie Godbe (Rapid City, S.D./Stevens) was hot on her heels in third with a 1:52.02.
After Indiana took the top three spots in the 100 back, freshman Emily Russart (Lake Geneva, Wis./Badger) announced her arrival in collegiate swimming with a more than half-second victory in the 100 breast. Her time of 1:03.47 led a 1-3-4 finish for Northwestern with Wilson in third and Kathleen Patterson (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) in fourth.
Indiana's Brittany Barwegen swam a scorching NCAA `B' provisional qualifying standard to win the 200 fly, but it was all Wildcats behind her. Junior Hannah Points (Tualatin, Ore./Tualatin) placed second in 2:04.27, sophomore Meredith King's (Louisville, Ky./duPont Manual) 2:04.93 was good for third and Cavanaugh came in fourth.
Northwestern continued to ride momentum into the midway point of the meet when Reynolds finished in a dead-heat for first with Indiana's Sara Delay to earn 6.5 points. Powell (23.90) notched three points in third and Shelby Johnson (Wayzata, Minn./Wayzata) (24.54) won a pair of points in fourth.
On the 3-meter springboard during the first diving break, sisters Felicitas Lenz (Altadena, Calif./Polytechnic School) and Cosima Lenz (Altadena, Calif./Polytechnic School) took second and third. Felicitas nearly pulled out the victory with a score of 322.13, 2.5 points shy of the win. Cosima scored a 281.03 in her first-collegiate event.
Coming out of the break, Powell notched NU's second-straight victory with a 51.53 in the 100 free, out-touching IU's top swimmer by .1 of a second. Reynolds was third for NU with a 51.71 to round out a tightly bunched top-three in the event.
Indiana swept the top two spots in the 200 back followed by Engstrom in third with a 2:03.60. The Hoosiers then took the top three positions in the 500 free, with Sosdian earning the top NU finish with a fourth-place time of 5:00.70.
Although Berwegen won the 100 fly, just like in the 200 it was all Wildcats in second, third and fourth. Cavanaugh swam a 56.82 to pick up the top NU finish followed by Hall (57.55) and Kraus (57.71).
"Megan Goss had one of our best early-season 1,000's today and Meghan Cavanaugh and Alex Kraus also looked strong," Tierney said. "Taylor Reynolds had a great day, she has the potential to be as good as some of our best recent sprinters. We have competition within the team right now and that is a good thing."
Felicitas and Cosima Lenz took third and fourth on the 1-meter springboard later in the meet. Following that second diving break, Points took third to lead Northwestern in the 400 IM with a 4:24.06.
To close out the meet, Powell, Johnson, Cavanaugh and Reynolds blazed to a 3:28.99 to win the 400 free relay.
Northwestern returns to action at 5 p.m. CT Friday, Nov. 5, against Purdue in a combined meet at the Norris Aquatics Center.
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