First Road Meet Produces Mixed Results for Illini

Illinois moves to 5-1 on the season

Swimming & Diving October 29, 2016

First Road Meet Produces Mixed Results for Illini

Illinois moves to 5-1 on the season

Evanston, Ill. - The Fighting Illini swimming and diving team set off on the road for the first time this season, as the team visited Evanston, Illinois, to take on Northwestern and Rutgers. The meet featured mixed results, as Illinois defeated Rutgers by a score of 168-132, but fell to the Wildcats 178-122.

"Overall we had a very solid and competitive meet against two strong Big Ten teams," said head coach Sue Novitsky. "It is nice to be able to come away with a win against Rutgers. We knew that it was going to be another meet with tight races. I was pleased to see people keep putting things together in their races and dives."

In the first event of the meet, the Illini relay team of Kolar, Stratford, Vuong and Anderson earned a second-place finish in the 400 medley relay with a time of 3:48.27. Freshman Monica Guyett followed that performance with a second-place finish of her own, finishing the 1000 freestyle in a time of 10:10.47.

A few events later another freshman earned a second-place finish, as Jamie Kolar finished with a time of :58.07 in the 100 backstroke. For the second consecutive meet, senior Amelia Schilling had an impressive showing in the 500 freestyle. The Minnesota native finished in second place with a time of 5:00.92.

Two other Illini swimmers earned second-place finishes on the day, including senior Audrey Rodawig in the 100 freestyle (:52.31) and sophomore Megan Vuong in the 100 butterfly (:56.66).

Strong Day for Stratford

Samantha Stratford carried the Illini on the day, as the junior earned three first-place finishes. Stratford touched the wall first in the 200 butterfly with a time of 2:01.55. She also won the 200 breaststroke and 400 individual medley with times of 2:16.70 and 4:22.60, respectively.

The Illini finished the meet strong by earning a first-place finish in the final event of the day, the 200 freestyle relay. The relay team of Anderson, Rodawig, Vuong and Bethke finished with a time of 1:35.71.

"Our relays stepped up and that is one of our main focuses this year," said Novitsky. "Now we get some great work in the next couple weeks and keep building on this good start."