RESULTS
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- On the very first day of the 2015 Big Ten Championships -- in the very first event -- Northwestern broke a school record in the 200 medley relay to highlight Wednesday's night's abbreviated, two-event opening session at Ohio State's McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion.
Northwestern wasted little time in setting the tone for its 2015 Big Ten Championships when its first swimmer hit the water in the form of backstroker Lacey Locke (Carmel, Ind./Carmel). She led off with the backstroke leg, Julianne Kurke (Atlanta, Ga./Parkview) swam the breast, junior Julia Pratt (Vincennes, Ind./Vincennes Rivet) rocked the butterfly and freshman Mary Warren (Hartland, Wis./Arrowhead) brought it home with the freestyle anchor to touch in 1:39.10, nine one-hundredths of a second faster than NU's previous school mark set in 2013.
With just two tenths of a second separating sixth through ninth in the event, Warren's touch put the Wildcats in seventh place among the field.
The second event of the abbreviated opening session Wednesday night was the 800 free relay. Sophomore Annika Winsnes (Singapore/United World College) led off with a career-best and NCAA `B' 200 free split time of 1:46.61 that is the fourth-fastest 200 free ever swam for Northwestern.
From there, Anna Keane (Edmonds, Wash./Meadowdale), Megan Purdy (Boulder City, Nev./Boulder City) and Ellen Anderson (Montgomery Village, Md./Gaithersburg) rounded out the relay with an NU season-best time of 7:14.75 to place ninth.
Those two results placed Northwestern eighth among the 13-team field entering Thursday's first full day of action. Preliminary heats get underway at 10 a.m. CT followed by diving trials at noon CT and finals at 5:30 p.m. CT.