Final Results
LINCOLN, Neb. – The University of Illinois swimming and diving team defeated Big Ten foe Nebraska (0-2) Saturday afternoon by a score of 164-136. The victory marks the first conference dual meet win on the road since October 23, 2015 at Michigan State. Freshman Cara Bognar earned three individual first place finishes, while junior Abigail Cabush and freshman Lily Olson received two top finishes apiece on the day.
"It was a tremendous effort from the entire team to get a win against a tough and talented Nebraska team," said head coach Sue Novitsky. "We were relaxed heading into the meet and got a great shot of energy from the first relay. From that first event all the way to the end, everyone was stepping up and competing. We stayed together as a team and that helped us keep fighting when the pressure was on us. Now, we have to take what we learned from this meet and keep taking steps to get better each week."
Bognar led the way for the Illini winning all three of her events. Those included the 200 butterfly (2:03.62), 500 freestyle (4:59.26) and 400 individual medley (4:27.75). She won the 200 butterfly and 500 freestyle last week at Purdue as well. Cabush grabbed her own victories in the 100 and 200 freestyles with times of 51.91 and 1:52.11, respectively. She also won both of those events at Purdue a week ago. Olson rounded out the group of girls winning their individual events. She claimed first place in the 50 freestyle (24.36) and 100 butterfly (57.05), while also placing third in the 100 freestyle (52.56).
Juniors Emily Bolger and Sidney Kennedy placed in multiple individual events too. Bolger brought home second place in the 200 breaststroke (2:23.97) and third place in the 100 breaststroke (1:07.37). Kennedy secured second place in the 1000 freestyle (10:34.48) and 500 freestyle (5:10.76).
Illinois (1-1) also grabbed first place in both the 200 medley relay (1:46.20) and 400 freestyle relay (3:30.85). The 200 medley relay team started the day off for the Orange and Blue and consisted of sophomore Athena Salafatinos, Bolger, Cabush and freshman Laurel Bludgen. The 400 freestyle relay team of Olson, Cabush, sophomore Isabelle Guerra and Bludgen capped off a victorious meet.
ON THE BOARDS
Four freshman were featured in the one-meter and three-meter events on Saturday. In the three-meter dive Brooke Michael posted a score of 240.60, good for sixth place. Allison Landis scored 244.88 to also finish in sixth place for the one-meter dive. Taylor Michael and Cacia Kaupp were the others in the diving lineup for the Fighting Illini.
NEXT UP
Illinois will travel to Madison, Wisconsin, to take on Wisconsin and Northwestern on Saturday, February 6 at 1:00 p.m. CT.
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