Liz Li Breaks Big Ten Record on First Morning of Big Tens

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

The first full morning of the 2018 Big Ten Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships featured three short events but witnessed a Big Ten record fall.

Ohio State’s Liz Li used her home pool to go a 21.67 in the 50 free to snag the top seed and will have a chance to win her third straight Big Ten title in the event. Purdue’s Kaersten Meitz and Wisconsin’s Beata Nelson are the top seeds in the 500 and the 200 IM respectively as the Wisconsin natives are looking to unseat the defending champions G Ryan of Michigan and Lilly King of Indiana.

Michigan and Indiana are the top two teams in the meet and we are tracking the ups and downs for swims later on tonight.

Michigan: 7-5*-1
Indiana: 5-2-7

*Michigan has a tie for 16th in the 50 with Vanessa Krause in a swim-off with Ohio State’s Marian Kahmann.

500 Free

Purdue senior Kaersten Meitz got Thursday’s prelims off to a good start as she swam the fastest 500 of the morning with a 4:37.66. Meitz is the top seed in the event ahead of Michigan freshman Sierra Schmidt (4:38.03) and Indiana senior Kennedy Goss (4:38.48).

Michigan got three total finalists along with a swimmer in the B and C final. Rose Bi (4:38.88) and G Ryan (4:39.27) will swim in the final for the Wolverines as Ryan is the defending B1G champion and looking for a repeat.

Cassy Jernberg of Indiana (4:39.83), Ally McHugh of Penn State (4:39.95) and Molly Kowal of Ohio State (4:40.73) will also swim in the championship final.

Minnesota’s Brooke Zeiger notably missed the final with a 4:42.17 for 11th place.

 Event 3  Women 500 Yard Freestyle
==================================================================
     B1G Meet: @ 4:34.40  2/16/2017 G Ryan, Michigan
         Pool: # 4:26.46  11/18/2016Katie G Ledecky, Stanford
                 4:36.30  A NCAA Qualifying
                 4:47.79  B NCAA Provisional
    Name           Year School               Seed    Prelims              
==================================================================
                      === Preliminaries ===                       
 
  1 Meitz, Kaersten  SR Purdue            4:36.59    4:37.66 qB     
    r:+0.78  26.45        54.53 (28.08)
        1:22.72 (28.19)     1:50.93 (28.21)
        2:19.16 (28.23)     2:47.28 (28.12)
        3:15.19 (27.91)     3:42.92 (27.73)
        4:10.76 (27.84)     4:37.66 (26.90)
  2 Schmidt, Sierra  FR Michigan          4:38.54    4:38.03 qB     
    r:+0.73  26.07        53.91 (27.84)
        1:22.14 (28.23)     1:50.15 (28.01)
        2:18.05 (27.90)     2:46.03 (27.98)
        3:14.11 (28.08)     3:42.38 (28.27)
        4:10.71 (28.33)     4:38.03 (27.32)
  3 Goss, Kennedy    SR Indiana           4:40.72    4:38.48 qB     
    r:+0.60  26.02        54.22 (28.20)
        1:22.60 (28.38)     1:50.80 (28.20)
        2:18.89 (28.09)     2:46.81 (27.92)
        3:14.83 (28.02)     3:42.56 (27.73)
        4:10.76 (28.20)     4:38.48 (27.72)
  4 Bi, Yirong       JR Michigan          4:35.02    4:38.88 qB     
    r:+0.68  26.08        53.90 (27.82)
        1:21.90 (28.00)     1:49.51 (27.61)
        2:17.64 (28.13)     2:45.73 (28.09)
        3:14.03 (28.30)     3:42.45 (28.42)
        4:10.83 (28.38)     4:38.88 (28.05)
  5 Ryan, G          SR Michigan          4:39.72    4:39.27 qB     
    r:+0.70  26.00        53.80 (27.80)
        1:22.01 (28.21)     1:50.46 (28.45)
        2:18.72 (28.26)     2:47.26 (28.54)
        3:15.98 (28.72)     3:44.15 (28.17)
        4:12.48 (28.33)     4:39.27 (26.79)
  6 Jernberg, Cassa  SO Indiana           4:42.71    4:39.83 qB     
    r:+0.68  26.18        53.77 (27.59)
        1:21.44 (27.67)     1:49.50 (28.06)
        2:17.85 (28.35)     2:46.31 (28.46)
        3:14.73 (28.42)     3:43.15 (28.42)
        4:11.71 (28.56)     4:39.83 (28.12)
  7 McHugh, Allyson  JR Penn St           4:38.77    4:39.95 qB     
    r:+0.80  26.70        54.99 (28.29)
        1:23.48 (28.49)     1:52.10 (28.62)
        2:20.56 (28.46)     2:48.88 (28.32)
        3:17.09 (28.21)     3:45.25 (28.16)
        4:13.10 (27.85)     4:39.95 (26.85)
  8 Kowal, Molly     SO Ohio St           4:42.28    4:40.73 qB     
    r:+0.87  26.34        54.19 (27.85)
        1:22.27 (28.08)     1:50.52 (28.25)
        2:18.84 (28.32)     2:47.22 (28.38)
        3:15.62 (28.40)     3:44.25 (28.63)
        4:12.95 (28.70)     4:40.73 (27.78)

200 IM

Wisconsin sophomore Beata Nelson picked up the top seed in the 200 IM at 1:55.20 ahead of Michigan’s Siobhan Haughey (1:55.53). Haughey is the 2016 B1G champion and touched first last year but was disqualified, thus giving the title to Lilly King. King is the third seed and will look to defend her title without having to rely on a disqualification. King swam a 1:56.03 this morning.

This was Haughey’s first swim of the meet after sitting out the 800 free relay last night.

Ohio State’s Meg Bailey (1:56.45), Michigan’s Clara Smiddy (1:56.80), Michigan’s Miranda Tucker (1:56.97), Indiana’s Christie Jensen (1:56.97) and Ohio State’s Megan Doty (1:57.45) will swim in the championship final.

One of the most underrated swimmers in the Big Ten, Minnesota sophomore Lindsey Kozelsky was 15th with a 1:58.81. She had a 32.29 breaststroke split that was only behind King. She had a very quick split last night in the medley relay, but was not picked up due to a pad malfunction.

 Event 4  Women 200 Yard IM
==================================================================
     B1G Meet: @ 1:54.97  2/18/2016 Siobhan B Haughey, Michigan
         Pool: # 1:52.63  11/30/2017Melanie Margalis, Saint Petersburg
                 1:55.00  A NCAA Qualifying
                 2:01.59  B NCAA Provisional
    Name           Year School               Seed    Prelims              
==================================================================
                      === Preliminaries ===                       
 
  1 Nelson, Elizabe  SO Wisconsin         1:55.16    1:55.20 qB     
    r:+0.74  24.68        53.42 (28.74)
        1:27.25 (33.83)     1:55.20 (27.95)
  2 Haughey, Siobha  JR Michigan          1:53.48    1:55.53 qB     
    r:+0.72  24.83        54.79 (29.96)
        1:27.45 (32.66)     1:55.53 (28.08)
  3 King, Lillia     JR Indiana           1:55.96    1:56.03 qB     
    r:+0.66  25.56        55.77 (30.21)
        1:27.77 (32.00)     1:56.03 (28.26)
  4 Bailey, Meg      SR Ohio St           1:57.13    1:56.45 qB     
    r:+0.70  25.16        55.14 (29.98)
        1:28.05 (32.91)     1:56.45 (28.40)
  5 Smiddy, Clara    SR Michigan          1:55.74    1:56.80 qB     
    r:+0.68  26.13        54.19 (28.06)
        1:28.19 (34.00)     1:56.80 (28.61)
  6 Tucker, Miranda  SO Michigan          1:58.35    1:56.97 qB     
    r:+0.67  25.48        56.02 (30.54)
        1:28.53 (32.51)     1:56.97 (28.44)
  6 Jensen, Christi  JR Indiana           1:57.97    1:56.97 qB     
    r:+0.68  24.69        54.78 (30.09)
        1:28.44 (33.66)     1:56.97 (28.53)
  8 Doty, Megan      SO Wisconsin         2:00.70    1:57.45 qB     
    r:+0.76  25.42        54.61 (29.19)
        1:29.26 (34.65)     1:57.45 (28.19)

50 Free

Ohio State senior Liz Li swimming in her home pool swam a new pool and Big Ten record of 21.67. Li broke Wisconsin’s Ivy Martin‘s Big Ten record of 21.84 from 2013 and Arizona’s Lara Jackson‘s pool record of 21.69 from the 2008 NCAA’s. Li was the only swimmer under 22 seconds in the prelims as she is going for three Big Ten titles in a row tonight in her home pool.

She will have two of her Buckeye teammates in the final with her. Macie McNichols (22.34) was fourth and Freya Rayner (22.42) was eighth in prelims.

Minnesota’s Danielle Nack (22.17), Wisconsin’s Marissa Berg (22.33), Minnesota’s Zoe Avestruz (22.35), Michigan’s Catie DeLoof (22.36) and Indiana’s Grace Haskett (22.38) will also swim in tonight’s final.

 Event 5  Women 50 Yard Freestyle
==================================================================
     B1G Meet: @ 21.84  2013      Ivy Martin, Wisconsin
         Pool: # 21.69  3/16/2008 Lara Jackson, Arizona
                 21.80  A NCAA Qualifying
                 22.99  B NCAA Provisional
    Name           Year School               Seed    Prelims              
==================================================================
                      === Preliminaries ===                       
 
  1 Li, Zhesi        SR Ohio St             21.97      21.67#qA     
    r:+0.68  10.43        21.67 (11.24)
  2 Nack, Danielle   SR Minnesota           22.44      22.17 qB     
    r:+0.68  10.71        22.17 (11.46)
  3 Berg, Marissa    SR Wisconsin           22.74      22.33 qB     
    r:+0.70  10.85        22.33 (11.48)
  4 McNichols, Maci  SR Ohio St             22.59      22.34 qB     
    r:+0.63  10.75        22.34 (11.59)
  5 Avestruz, Zoe    JR Minnesota           22.41      22.35 qB     
    r:+0.66  10.76        22.35 (11.59)
  6 Deloof, Catheri  JR Michigan            22.30      22.36 qB     
    r:+0.68  10.87        22.36 (11.49)
  7 Haskett, Grace   FR Indiana             22.10      22.38 qB     
    r:+0.63  10.73        22.38 (11.65)
  8 Rayner, Freya    FR Ohio St             22.25      22.42 qB     
    r:+0.66  10.97        22.42 (11.45)

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Sharon Rinaldi

6 years ago

Go Liz!!!