Team splashes into new season with
first-meet wine
With a 3-1 record, the women's swimming
and diving team has high hopes for the season ahead.
"We're off to a really good start," said freshman Crystal McAdam.
With a 178.5-121.5 finish over Southern Illinois in their first meet,
the Illini were already breaking records. McAdam won the 1000 freestyle,
moving herself into seventh in the Illinois All-Time Top Ten List.
Of 16 events, 11 were won by the Illini.
"Overall, we've had a lot of different people scoring," said senior
Anna Christiansen. "It's been a total team effort, and we've been
doing well working together."
Against rivals Illinois State and Northern Illinois, Illinois beat
both, 62-50 and 72-40 respectively and swept first in over half of
the events.
In the only loss of the season, Illinois still recorded 32 season-best
times in the meet against Indiana University. Senior Darcy Adler won
her fourth straight meet in the 100 breaststroke and McAdam won the
400 IM with a time that moved her into 6th place in the Illinois Top
Ten List.
"It's exciting to be performing this well in the beginning of the
season," said junior Jessica Aveyard.
According to head coach Sue Novitsky, the team has been doing well
in its times this season, but the Illini need to work on finishing
their races more aggressively, especially where the finishes would
be close.
"We need to work on confidence and believing in ourselves," said Aveyard.
"It's still early in the season, and there's a lot we can do to improve."
This weekend the Illini compete at the Continental Airlines Classic
at Rice University in Houston against Big Ten rivals Michigan and
Penn State as well as Missouri, Rice and UC-Berkeley, the No. 2 team
in the nation.
"It gives us some strong competition," said Novitsky. "We match up
pretty well in events. It's going to come down to who wants to win
the most and who feels like racing."
"It's going to be a fun meet," said Aveyard. "We've never swam there
before, and everyone's really excited." |
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