Feb. 17, 2011
Results
Official 2011 Big Ten Championships Website
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Northwestern turned in multiple career-best swims and earned a trio of NCAA consideration times during Thursday morning's three-event preliminary session at the Big Ten Championships, but the results were a mixed bag in terms of second-swim opportunities for the evening's finals session.
In the 500 free, freshman Jackie Powell (Madison, Wis./James Madison Memorial) earned a second swim in the bonus final when she placed 19th overall in an NCAA `B' time of 4:49.68, 4.24 seconds quicker than her seed time in the event. Sophomore Meredith King (Louisville, Ky./duPont Manual) earned first alternate status for the 500 free bonus final when she turned in a massive drop of 7.5 seconds from her seed time to swim a career-best and NCAA `B' cut time of 4:51.17 -- good for 25th overall after the morning session.
NU's top seed and a former first-team All-American in the event, senior Ellen Grigg (Charlotte, N.C./Charlotte Latin School) unfortunately ran into trouble when her goggles failed early on during her swim, leading to a 33rd-place 4:54.25 that was 2.20 seconds slower than her seed.
In the 200 IM, junior Kathleen Patterson (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) swam a 2:03.12 while classmate Jacquie Godbe (Rapid City, S.D./Stevens) notched a career-best 2:03.13 to each earn spots in the bonus final of the event.
Swimming in her first Big Ten meet, freshman Becca Soderholm (Madison, Wis./Madison East) placed 27th overall with a 2:03.57, a time 2.73 seconds faster than her seed.
Sophomore Taylor Reynolds (St. Louis, Mo./Webster Groves) earned a scoring position in the consolation final of the 50 free with her Thursday morning effort, swimming a career-best and NCAA `B' cut time of 23.00 to take 13th overall. That time moves Reynolds up from ninth to a tie for sixth on NU's all-time top times list in the event.
Senior Liza Engstrom (Reno, Nev./Robert McQueen) narrowly missed out on the consolation final after a career-best swim of her own, tying for 18th place and securing a bonus final lane with a 23.25.
The career-bests continued to come for Northwestern in the 50 free, with sophomore Marybeth Hall (Brighton, Mich./Brighton) going 23.41 to take 28th overall and miss out on a second swim by just .08 of a second. Hall entered this weekend following a breakout meet at the Shamrock Invitational three weeks ago, setting her previous career-best of 23.60 at that time.
Preliminary competition in the 1-meter diving event will commence this afternoon; those results will be included in tonight's final Thursday recap.
Thursday night's finals session begins at 5:30 p.m. CT. Live results and further information are available at the Official 2011 Big Ten Championships website.
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