UWM Women Remain In Contention After Day Two Of League Championships
Feb. 21, 2008
CLEVELAND, Ohio - The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's swimming & diving team broke three school records at the Horizon League Championships on Thursday, helping it to a second-place tie after day two of the event. It took three Horizon League-record swims by their opponents to keep the Panthers from adding to their point totals on the day. Green Bay jumped into the lead with 320 points, with both Milwaukee and Wright State tied for second with 292. UIC is fourth with 171, Youngstown State fifth with 120, Valparaiso sixth at 108, Cleveland State seventh at 90 and Butler in eighth with 68 points. Junior Ashley Hall earned Second Team All-Horizon League honors on the one-meter diving board, taking second place with an NCAA Zone-qualifying total of 272.85 points. She missed first place by less than four points to winner Lauren McGraw of Green Bay (276.55). The team ended with six of the top 10 finishers in the event to help the cause, as sophomore Rachel Grimm was fourth (224.60 points), freshman Kelsey George sixth (223.50 points) and freshman Lauren Roy eighth (199.05 points). Their teammates grabbed the top two spots in the consolation finals, as freshman Michelle Kornder was ninth with a season-high 205.84 points and senior Megan McLoone 10th with 205.40 points. Junior Molly Finn set a new school record in the 200 IM, finishing in a time of 2:06.75 to better the record she already held. It was good enough for a third-place finish, with Wright State's Jessica Weidert winning in a new Horizon League record time of 2:04.16. Sophomore Bailey Nennig was also in the championship heat, taking sixth in a season-best 2:09.75.
Three Panthers swam in the consolation heat, with sophomore Shannon Berndt getting touched out of the victory, taking third in 2:10.85, just 25-hundredths off the winning time. Sophomore Ali Winius was right behind in 12th in 2:13.61 and sophomore Kerry Rossow in 14th in 2:14.02. All three times were season-bests. Milwaukee had four swimmers in the finals of the 500 freestyle, with freshman Danielle Wenger taking seventh in the championship heat in a time of 5:08.17. She was the first of two to break the school and freshman marks, doing it earlier in the day when she finished the preliminary heat in 5:05.21. UWM had three others in the consolation heat, with freshman Kelsey Ogle taking 10th and sophomores Alex Nelson 15th and Jenny Westfall 16th. Ogle actually ended the night with the new school and freshman marks in the event, touching the wall in 5:04.27 in the consolation heat while Nelson finished in 5:14.94 and Westfall in 5:15.12. The former school record of 5:05.94 was set by Leslie Brock in 2001 and Emma McKeith held the old freshman mark with a time of 5:07.48. The 400 medley relay team of Wenger, Rossow, Finn and senior Jess Kelly came within 13-hundredths of the school record of 3:51.09 but had to settle for second when Green Bay set a new league record in the event. The Phoenix won in 3:50.64 to the Panthers time of 3:51.22. In the 50 freestyle, UWM was represented by the senior duo of Kelly and Heidi Goetsch. Kelly took sixth in a season-best 24.28, while Goetsch was 13th in 25.03. That came after she set a career-best in preliminaries with a time of 24.96. Day three begins tomorrow morning, with preliminaries starting at 10:30 a.m. and finals scheduled for a 6 p.m. start time. |
