Wenger Claims League Title In 1,000 Free To Lead UWM At Championships
Feb. 20, 2008
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Freshman Danielle Wenger broke the school record in winning the 1,000 freestyle Wednesday night to get the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's swimming & diving team off to a good start at the Horizon League Championships in Cleveland, Ohio. The Panthers sit in second place with 104 points after day one, trailing Wright State (135) by 31 points. Green Bay sits in third with 89 points, UIC fourth with 80, Youngstown State fifth with 69, Valparaiso sixth with 58, Cleveland State seventh with 48 and Butler rounds out the team scores with 44 points. Wenger went wire-to-wire with Catalina Martinez of Wright State, surging ahead in the final lap to claim the league title in a time of 10:17.43. Martinez, the three-time defending champion and Horizon League record holder, was just behind in 10:17.97. The time was less than a second behind the league standard and broke the UWM school and freshman records that Wenger set earlier this season of 10:26.62. It also marked the first time a Panther has ever won a Horizon League title in the 1,000 free. "It was a very exciting race," UWM head coach Dave Griffore said. "For Danielle to take down the three-time defending Horizon League champion is tough. You have to be tough in order to do that. It's one thing to win, but to take down someone as good as she did is fantastic." Also scoring in the event for Milwaukee was freshman Kelsey Ogle (season-best 10:36.58) in 10th place, sophomore Alex Nelson (career-best 10:37.20) in 11th place, junior Kelsey McDonough (career-best 10:45.63) in 14th and sophomore Jenny Westfall (10:45.93) in 15th.
The final event of the day was also a record-breaker, as Wenger, sophomore Kerry Rossow, freshman Amanda Nelson and senior Jess Kelly set a new school standard in finishing second in the 200 medley relay. Green Bay won in 1:45.93, just ahead of the Panther time of 1:46.35. That broke the school record of 1:46.77, set by Julie Olson, Lindsay Caldwell, Briana Fergusson and Bridget Fargen in 2005. The Panthers opened the meet with a third-place effort in the 200 free relay. Freshman Ellie Gross, sophomore Bailey Nennig and seniors Heidi Goetsch and Kelly finished in a season-best 1:36.87. "I was really pleased," Griffore said. "Those are two of our weaker relays and we got the school record in the 200 medley relay which is fantastic. But, we have a lot of meet left. It's a four day meet and this is just the first day - we have a long ways to go." The championship meet continues tomorrow, with preliminaries beginning at 10:30 a.m. and finals at 6 p.m. |
