Final Results | Novitsky Invterview | Lynn Interview

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The Fighting Illini swimming and diving team got to swim in front of the home crowd for the first time this season. Illinois welcomed Iowa State to the ARC Pool on Friday afternoon, and came away with a 168-132 win. The Orange and Blue improve to 4-3 in dual meets this season.

"We were a little rusty with our racing and that showed in a lot of the details and how they were swimming their races," said head coach Sue Novitsky. " I thought we could clean some stuff up, but that will come by more racing these next couple of weeks. We had some people really step up and swim really well for the amount of work we have done. They were tough all the way through the lineup."

The event started off well for the Illini, as the quartet of Alison Meng, Samantha Stratford, Lori Lynn and Gabrielle Bethke won the 200 medley relay in 1:44.71. Gabbie Stecker followed that up with a win in the 1000 free, stopping the clock at 10:15.58. Stratford came back from her leg of the opening relay to win the 200 free in 1:52.36, and Meng did the same in the 100 back, clocking 56.04. The Cyclones won five of the next six events closing the gap in the team score. Lynn won the 200 fly in 2:04.90, the lone Illini to win an event in that stretch.

Stratford won the 200 breaststroke in 2:19.95, stopping the Cyclone run. Stratford's win started a stretch where Illinois won five the meet's final six events. Lynn added the 100 fly title to the 200 fly title she won earlier, winning in 56.57. In the three-meter dive, Olivia Kassouni scored 285.30 to win the event. The mark also qualifies her for the NCAA Zone Diving Championships on March 12-14. Startford added a 200 IM title to her previous victories, registering a time of 2:05.31. The 400 freestyle relay team of Meng, Stecker, Bethke and Megan Marchuk closed the evening with a win, stopping the clock at 3:28.66.

"Iowa State made a run there in the middle of the meet," noted Novitsky. "We were able to fight them off and finish out really tough with wins in the last two events."

The Illini are back in action tomorrow morning at 11 a.m. Iowa, Illinois' first Big Ten dual opponent, will be coming into the ARC Pool as the 21st-ranked team in the CSCAA rankings.