RESULTS
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The 2015 Big Ten Championships came to a close Saturday night at Ohio State's McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion with Northwestern in 10th place among the 13-team field.
This year's meet was the first after the addition of Maryland and Rutgers to the conference, expanding the field to 13 teams (Maryland does not sponsor swimming and diving). Northwestern concluded Saturday's individual events in a ninth-place tie with Nebraska, but a ninth-place finish in platform diving by a Husker -- NU is without its divers at the B1G Championships due to injury and illness -- put them ahead of the Wildcats by nine points. Though Northwestern finished ahead of Nebraska in the final 400 free relay, the Huskers held on to ninth by five points in front of the Wildcats.
In a meet in which Northwestern started with a school record in the very first event, the 200 medley relay, NU finished with 138 points, just behind Nebraska's 143. NU finished ahead of Rutgers, Illinois and Michigan State. Minnesota won the 2015 Big Ten team championship.
Junior Emily Launer (DeKalb, Ill./Rosary) was honored as Northwestern's Big Ten Sportsmanship Award winner at the end of the meet.
Preliminary Portion of Saturday's Action
In four preliminary events Saturday morning at the 2015 Big Ten Championships, likely two Wildcats per race earned second swims in the evening finals session -- including two in scoring heats.
A pair of Wildcats swam NCAA `B' cuts in the 200 back prelims, with one certain to come back and swim in the bonus final of the event Saturday night. Sophomore Lacey Locke (Carmel, Ind./Carmel) finished 24th overall in 1:58.43, which was a tad off her previous season-best in the event. Meanwhile, her classmate Melissa Postoll (Acworth, Ga./Kennesaw Mountain) turned in a career-best swim and the first NCAA `B' cut of her career with a 1:58.70 to place 25th overall. The time moves Postoll into eighth on NU's all-time top-10 in the event.
Two more B1GCats notched `B' cuts in the 100 free prelims, earning one scoring final berth and one bonus final lane. Sophomore Annika Winsnes (Singapore/United World College) lowered her previous career-best in the 100 free to 49.39 to qualify 13th overall while freshman Mary Warren (Hartland, Wis./Arrowhead) became the seventh Wildcat in program history to break the 50 second mark when she touched in 19th place with a career-best 49.96.
Northwestern picked up two more possible bonus final swims in the 200 breast with Saturday morning's action. Junior Julianne Kurke (Atlanta, Ga./Parkview) qualified 22nd overall with a 2:16.26 while Georgie Pettibone (Santa Rosa, Calif./Analy) slashed her career-best in the race down to a 2:16.83 to finish 25th. Pettibone's swim moves her up to eighth on NU's all-time top times list in the event.
In the 200 butterfly, sophomore Ellen Stello (Shorewood, Wis./Shorewood) did not match her school-record swim from that AT&T U.S. Winter Nationals, but she did touch in a `B' cut time of 1:58.92 that qualified her 10th overall for the consolation final in the event.
Launer snatched the last bonus final lane in the 200 fly with a career-best 2:01.37 that lowered her previous college best in the event by 1.47 seconds.
Finals Portion of Saturday's Action:
The afternoon began with heats of the 1,650 freestyle leading up to the official opening of the last finals session of the 2015 Big Ten Championships. During those heats, freshman Sydney Modeas (East Amherst, N.Y./Clarence) swam a career-best and NCAA `B' provisional qualifying time of 16:30.53 to lead Northwestern with a 19th place overall finish. That time moved Modeas up to eighth all-time in the event at NU.
Junior Ellen Anderson (Montgomery Village, Md./Gaithersburg) was right behind Modeas in a career-best time of her own, finishing 21st with a 16:35.76. Sophomore Lauren Abruzzo (Denver, Colo./Kent Denver), who qualified for the NCAA Championships last year in the mile, had a tough go of it this season with a 22nd-place 16:38.54 that was 16 seconds off her seed time.
In the 200 back bonus final, Locke moved up from 24th after the prelims to a 19th place finish with a season-best 1:57.85 that was a much improved swim over her morning outing, coming within .18 of a second of her career best in the race.
Winsnes put in a 49.61 `B' time in the 100 free consolation final to place 13th overall and score four points for Northwestern. Warren scratched her bonus final swim to concentrate on the evening's final 400 free relay.
Kurke was NU's lone representative in the 200 breast bonus final when the heat rolled around Saturday night, and she ended up 24th overall with a 2:17.63.
Stello scored six points for the Wildcats in the 200 fly final with yet another NCAA `B' time in the race. She swam a 1:59.40. In the bonus final, Launer remained in 24th place after the evening action.
In the final race of the meet, Winsnes, Malone, Keane and Warren swam a 3:20.05 in the 400 free relay to place eighth overall.