Feb. 18, 2010
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• Day Three Heat Sheet | Big Ten Championship Central
Site: West Lafayette, Ind. (Boilermaker Aquatic Center)
Event: Big Ten Championships (Day 2 of 4)
U-M Team Standing: 2nd Place of 11 Teams (193.5 Points) After Day 2
Next U-M Event: Fri-Sat., Feb. 19-20 -- at Big Ten Championships (West Lafayette, Ind.), 11 a.m./6:30 p.m.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Senior swimmer Margaret Kelly (Ann Arbor, Mich./Pioneer) became a six-time Big Ten champion during the evening session on Thursday (Feb. 18) during day two of the Big Ten Championships, besting the field in the 200-yard individual medley to lead the No. 16-ranked University of Michigan women's swimming and diving team inside the Boilermaker Aquatic Center. Michigan currently sits in second place (195.5 pts.) after Thursday's action, while Minnesota leads with 204.5 pts.
Kelly came out of the blocks and never trailed in the 200 IM race. Her time of 1:56.01 is a new Big Ten Championships record and automatically qualifies her for the NCAA Championships. The time also broke the two-year-old conference championships record of 1:56.80, which she owned, set at the 2008 Big Ten Championships. Kelly also holds the conference's top time in the event (1:55.90), set at last year's NCAA Championships. She pulled out of the 2009 Big Ten Championships in Ann Arbor due to injury and was unable to defend her titles from 2008 but will walk away this year with at least one. Freshman Mattie Kukors (Auburn, Wash./Mountainview) also turned in a lifetime-best performance to give Michigan some added points via her fifth-place finish in the 200-yard individual medley.
The Wolverines narrowly missed out on crowning two more champions. Fifth-year senior Emily Brunemann (Crescent Springs, Ky./Notre Dame Academy) had a lead through the first 300 yards of the 500-yard freestyle and seemed poised to grab another championship (Brunemann was the 2008 Big Ten Champion in the 500-yard freestyle). However, down the stretch, Brunemann was overtaken by Ashley Steenvoorden (Minnesota) and settled for a second-place finish in the race.
Michigan got the same result kicking off the evening session, taking second in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Despite having the top time of any quartet heading into Thursday night's race, the foursome of Kelly, senior Leigh Cole (Ann Arbor, Mich./Pioneer), sophomore Alexa Mehesan (West Des Moines, Iowa/Valley) and junior Natasha Moodie (Miramar, Fla./Miramar) came up less than a half-second behind Wisconsin. Moodie swam with fury on the last leg, clocking in with a split of 21.92, but it was not enough to overcome the Badgers.
Moodie got a chance at redemption later in the evening in the 50-yard freestyle. While she was unable to repeat her speedy split earlier in the night, Moodie managed to secure a third-place finish for the Wolverines (22.53). She was bested by Ariel Martin (Purdue) and Rebecca Thompson (Wisconsin), who set the Big Ten and Championships meet record earlier in the day.
Two Michigan divers scored top-10 finishes on Thursday night on the one-meter springboard. Sophomore Amanda Lohman (Pittsburgh, Pa./Upper St. Clair) took fifth (310.45), while senior Stephanie O'Callaghan (Howell, Mich./Howell) took 10th (282.65). The pair combined for 23 points, just enough to hold off Indiana for second place at the conclusion of Thursday's action.
The 2010 Big Ten Championships continue tomorrow (Friday, Feb. 19), with preliminaries starting at 11 a.m. Three-meter diving begins at 1 p.m., with the swimming finals set to start at 6:30 p.m.
Team Standings (After Day Two)
1. Minnesota 204.5
2. MICHIGAN 193.5
3. Indiana 191
4. Purdue 182
5. Wisconsin 150.5
6. Penn State 144
7. Ohio State 139.5
8. Northwestern 101
9. Iowa 63
10. Michigan State 50
11. Illinois 27
Event Winners/U-M Finishers (Day Two)
Preliminaries time in parenthesis if faster than finals time
200-yard Freestyle Relay
1. Wisconsin 1:28.97#
(Rebecca Thompson, Margaret Meyer
Kelsey Gergen, Ruby Martin)
2. Michigan 1:29.42#
(Margaret Kelly, Leigh Cole
Alexa Mehesan, Natasha Moodie)
500-yard Freestyle
1. Ashley Steenvoorden, Minnesota 4:39.47#
2. Emily Brunemann, U-M 4:41.66#
18. Kristyne Cole, U-M 4:48.83#
20. Kally Fayhee, U-M 4:50.77#
27. Emily Hanson, U-M 4:52.44
30. Liz Koselka, U-M 4:53.37
200-yard Individual Medley
1. Margaret Kelly, U-M 1:56.01!*
5. Mattie Kukors, U-M 1:59.71#
14. Claire Tyler, U-M 2:01.73#
22. Val Barthelemy, U-M 2:03.37
23. Melissa Lang, U-M 2:03.67 (2:03.12)
30. Lori Morton, U-M 2:04.70
36. Courtney Beyer, U-M 2:05.29
50-yard Freestyle
1. Rebecca Thompson, Wisconsin 22.23#
3. Natasha Moodie, U-M 22.53#
10. Alexa Mehesan, U-M 23.02#
17. Leigh Cole, U-M 23.01#
19. Deirdre Jones, U-M 23.21 (23.13)
21. Caitlin Dauw, U-M 23.50 (23.24)
23. Katherine Carl, U-M 23.60 (23.20)
47. Catherine Nosal, U-M 23.74
50. Liz Johnson, U-M 23.78
88. Julia Andracki, U-M 24.53
101. Emily Christy, U-M 25.24
105. Keenan Koss, U-M 25.80
One-Meter Diving
1. Kelci Bryant, Minnesota 348.20!
5. Amanda Lohman, U-M 310.45
10. Stephanie O'Callaghan, U-M 282.65
22. Rachael Ropeik, U-M 240.65
23. Caitlin Dunphy-Daly, U-M 240.30
! Big Ten Championship record
* NCAA automatic qualifying time
# NCAA 'B' provisional qualifying time
• Previous Results: Day One
N O T E S
• Kelly won three titles at the 2008 Big Ten Championships (100-yard butterfly, 200-yard individual medley, 400-yard freestyle relay) and two more at the 2007 Big Ten Championships (200-yard freestyle relay, 400-yard freestyle relay).
• Eight swimmers on Thursday night reached the NCAA provisional qualifying standard and one (Kelly) automatically qualified.
• Three swimmers earned provisional qualifying marks for the first time this season in individual races: L. Cole (50 free), Fayhee (500 free), and Tyler (200 IM).
• Moodie's time in the 50-yard freestyle (22.53) is a new career high.
Q U O T E S
Michigan Head Coach Jim Richardson
On where his team sits after two days ... "I'm very pleased with how we raced. I thought our relays were fantastic. Emily [Brunemann] swam a wonderful 500-yard freestyle, which is a testament to her. We are training her a lot harder this year for Big Tens and it was a good swim. Natasha was right there. All the rest of our swimmers, we didn't have a bad swim out there. Very pleased with how we raced."
On Margaret Kelly's sixth Big Ten title ... "It was maybe the best 200-yard IM of her life. Not necessarily the fastest, but the best. Considering she had to scratch out of the meet last year due to injury; to come back and win this event again probably has a little more meaning to it than some of the other ones."
On eight swimmers earning qualifying marks ... "I think we are swimming really well. We possibly could be a better NCAA team than a Big Ten team in terms of people we have out front in relays. Time will tell. I am very happy with how we swam tonight and last night, so I think we are in a good position here to make it a very good meet all the way through."
On the rest of the meet ... "I really don't worry about standings. Minnesota came in on paper having over 250 points on the psych sheet than us. They are a very deep and a very talented team. To be within 10 points of them after two days is a tribute to our young women and the way they are swimming. We aren't supposed to be anywhere close to them. Again, we're not worrying about that. It comes down to swimming every race and doing the best we can in it and trying to get your hand on the wall ahead of someone else you are close with. If you are doing that, you are doing all you can do. However the team scores shake out, I'll be fine as long as we walk away thinking we did our best and left it all out there."
U-M Senior Margaret Kelly
On her sixth Big Ten title ... "It hurt like hell, but I was just doing my thing. You have to leave everything you have right here. I was doing all I could to get my hand on the wall as fast as I could."
On if her sixth means more than any others ... "It kind of does. I think since I'm a senior, it makes it more special. I wasn't really happy with my race this morning, so I made some changes, changed my attitude and it really helped. It helped me throughout the race and I'm glad I was able to come up with the right result."
On the team's performance ... "We sat down as a team this afternoon and told everyone to go out there and give it all they had for Michigan. I thought we did a great job tonight."
On what the team needs to do in the final two days ... "We just have to keep rolling. I think tonight we did what we had to do. We stepped it up. I think everyone across the board had faster times tonight than they did this morning. We've got to get people going in the morning, and as long as we do that, we'll be alright."
Contact: Brad Rudner (734) 763-4423
