RESULTS
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Three more pool records fell and Northwestern notched five more NCAA `B' provisional qualification times Sunday on the final day of its home TYR Invitational to conclude a wildly successful weekend with a team victory over the seven-squad field.
Ellen Stello (Shorewood, Wis./Shorewood) broke the Norris Aquatic Center pool record while notching an NCAA `B' time in the 200 fly while Annika Winsnes (Singapore/United World College) shattered the pool 100 free record as the leadoff leg of a pool record 400 free relay. Stello, Winsnes, Lauren Abruzzo (Denver, Colo./Kent Denver) and Lacey Locke (Carmel, Ind./Carmel) and all had `B' cuts as well Sunday.
Those efforts gave Northwestern four total pool records and 11 NCAA `B' qualification standards at the meet. Friday, NU took down at 17-year-old pool record in the 400 medley relay prior to Stello' stellar Sunday.
Northwestern cruised to victory in the points race, compiling 1,287.5 points to greatly outdistance Michigan's State's second-place total of 856. Air Force landed in third place overall (614.5), UIC blazed to fourth (358), Saint Louis took fifth (298.5), Truman State was sixth (279.5) and Northern Iowa -- competing this weekend with only divers -- was a technical seventh.
Northwestern now shifts its focus to fall exams and its winter training trip. Prior to that, a quintet of Wildcats will head to U.S. Nationals Dec. 3-6 in Greensboro, N.C.
Sunday's Preliminary Session
Northwestern's Sunday morning started well with all four Wildcats entered in the 50 fly earning berths in the championship final. Julia Pratt (Vincennes, Ind./Vincennes Rivet) qualified second overall with a 25.09 while Winsnes, Valerie Nubbe (Huntsville, Ala./Huntsville) and Stello advanced in sixth through eighth.
One day after notching an NCAA `B' cut in the 100 back, Locke did so in the 200 back as well to qualify first overall for the evening final with a 1:58.68. Melissa Postoll (Acworth, Ga./Kennesaw Mountain), in third, Ellen Anderson (Montgomery Village, Md./Gaithersburg), in fifth and Jackie Doyle (Danville, Calif./San Ramon Valley), in seventh, also made it through to the championship final.
Senior Madeleine Klichowski (Chicago, Ill./Loyola Academy) won the top seed in the consolation final with a 2:05.08 and will swim alongside teammate Chelsea Soderholm (Madison, Wis./Madison East), who was 12th overall after the morning.
Winsnes swam a career-best 50.08 in the 100 free to qualify first overall for the championship heat with nearly a full second margin over her teammate Aja Malone (Acworth, Ga./Allatoona), who was second. Mary Warren (Hartland, Wis./Arrowhead) finished third, Maddy Sims (Downers Grove, Ill./Downers Grove) fourth and Anna Keane (Edmonds, Wash./Meadowdale) fifth to give NU a top-five sweep of the qualification spots in the event. For good measure, sophomore Lacey Smith (Boulder, Colo./Fairview) took seventh in a dead-heat to also make the `A' final.
Nubbe ended up just three one-hundredths of a second from the championship final herself and instead will headline the `B' final following a 52.09. Both Katherine Senseman (Terre Haute, Ind./Terre Haute South Vigo) (17th) and Erika Elliott (Barrington, Ill./Barrington) (20th) earned second swims in the bonus final of the 100 free.
Julianne Kurke (Atlanta, Ga./Parkview) continued her strong TYR Invitational with a second-place overall qualification in the 200 breast, touching in a time of 2:16.46. Sophomore Georgie Pettibone (Santa Rosa, Calif./Analy) had a career-best effort in her preliminary heat, touching in 2:19.68 to join Kurke in the championship final via a sixth-place result.
Sophomore Katie Branch (Phoenix, Ariz./Horizon Honors), NU's lone other entry into the 200 breast, qualified 11th overall for a lane in the consolation final.
Four Wildcats made the 50 back championship final led by Locke in second and Senseman in third. Postoll in fifth and Doyle in sixth rounded out that NU quartet in the `A' final. Klichowksi and Karen Turner (Lake Oswego, Ore./Lakeridge) both earned berths in the consolation final while Soderholm picked up a second swim in the bonus heat via an 18th-place overall qualification.
In the 200 fly, where Stello has been a sorcerer thus far in 2014-15, the sophomore continued her dominance with a first-place overall qualification swim of 1:59.42 to take the top spot by more than two seconds with an NCAA `B' cut time and her first-career sub 2:00 swim in the event. Emily Launer (DeKalb, Ill./Rosary) (fourth), Malone (sixth) and Sims (seventh) followed for championship final lanes.
Pettibone also notched a scoring lane with an 11th-place 2:06.88 to make the consolation final.
A 5-meter platform diving event was held during Sunday's morning preliminaries and Northwestern's entries were the lone competitors in the field. Freshman Mashal Hashem (Potomac, Md./Winston Churchill) got the best of her classmate Monique Demaisip (Norwalk, Calif./Gahr), 186.68 to 180.83.
Sunday's Finals Session
Abruzzo and Sydney Modeas (East Amherst, N.Y./Clarence) started Northwestern's evening session off with a 2-3 finish in the 1,650 freestyle. Abruzzo notched an NCAA `B' provisional qualifying time of 16:28.71 to lead the Wildcats in second place while Modeas touched in 16:40.74. Anderson gave NU sixth-place points with a 16:53.38 while Launer ended up ninth in 17:13.11.
Pratt touched second to lead Northwestern in the 50 fly finals with Stello fourth and Nubbe eighth. Winsnes scratched from her championship final lane to concentrate on her top seed in the 100 free.
Locke lowered her previous NCAA `B' provisional qualifying time from the morning 200 back to 1:57.96, winning by a quite comfortable 3.06 second margin over her teammate Postoll's 2:01.02 (that in and of itself was a 1.50 second drop from morning to afternoon for Postoll). Anderson placed fourth overall and Doyle came in eighth.
The senior Klichowski won the `B' final of the 200 back with a 2:05.35 while Soderholm got 11th-place points with a 2:05.71.
In the 100 free championship final, Winsnes lowered her career-best time yet again, this time reaching NCAA `B' cut territory. Her first-career sub 50:00 time in the event saw her touch in 49.98 to lead a 1-2-3 sweep for the Wildcats. Warren was second in 50.91 and Keane was third in 51.13 followed by Smith in fifth and Nubbe in eighth. Nubbe earned a championship lane after both Malone and Sims scratched the finals.
Senseman finished 11th overall after her swim in the consolation final while Elliott was 22nd following her bonus heat effort.
After slightly breaking her career best in the 200 breast in the morning, Pettibone annihilated it in the afternoon, cutting 2.24 more seconds away to touch in a fourth-place overall time of 2:17.44. She flipped the script on her upperclassmen teammate Kurke, who placed sixth overall. Branch was 12th following her swim in the `B' final.
Locke earned her second individual win of the day Sunday when she reached the wall three one-hundredths of a second ahead of a Michigan State swimmer in the 50 back. Postoll (third), Senseman (fourth) and Doyle (sixth) followed. Klichowski was 11th overall and Turner 12th after the consolation final while Soderholm's second-place finish in the bonus heat gave her an 18th-place result overall.
Stello went deeper in the afternoon 200 fly than she did in the morning, so deep that she brought the down the pool record of 1:58.97 with a `B' cut of 1:58.70, winning the championship heat by 2.57 seconds. Sims placed fourth behind her while Malone was fifth and Launer eighth. Pettibone had a nice consolation final swim, cutting 2.23 seconds from her morning effort to move up to 10th overall with a career-best 2:04.65.
With all of the fireworks in the meet, Northwestern saved its best for last. Winsnes began the final 400 free relay with a 49.48 100 free split to take out the pool record of 49.65. NU continued to push from there via Malone, Keane and Warren (a team of three freshmen and a sophomore), eventually touching in a pool record time of 3:20.41 that smashed the old mark of 3:22.19 set by Missouri in 2012. NU won the race by 6.44 seconds.