MADISON, Wis. — The University of Illinois swimming and diving team fell on Saturday afternoon to Wisconsin (243-57) and Northwestern (251-49) in a double dual meet in Madison, Wisconsin. The Fighting Illini finished the day with 10 individual career best times, including junior Abigail Cabush breaking the school record in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:47.90.
"I thought the team today did a great job," said head coach Sue Novitsky. "We went up against two extremely talented teams from the Big Ten. Our goal was to go in there and focus on ourselves and to step up and compete. Sidney Kennedy got the team rolling with a college-best in the 1000 freestyle. Abby Cabush followed that up with a school record in the 200 freestyle. All the way through the meet we had girls beating their personal bests. I was proud of the way we were not intimidated by a couple of the best teams in the conference."
Cabush broke the previous school record for the 200 freestyle which was held by Barbie Viney (1:47.96) set on Feb. 8, 2007.
The list of career best times went as follows:
Freshman Lily Olson – 200 butterfly (2:03.06), 100 butterfly (55.73) and 50 freestyle (23.62)
Freshman Cara Bognar – 200 freestyle (1:51.39) and 500 freestyle (4:55.43)
Freshman Laurel Bludgen – 200 freestyle (1:52.74)
Junior Kaylee Heimes – 100 butterfly (57.54)
Freshman Lauren Beard – 500 freestyle (5:11.88)
Freshman Meghan Niziolek – 100 backstroke (59.56)
Kennedy swam college-best times of 10:15.15 in the 1000 freestyle and 4:57.89 in the 500 freestyle. Previously Kennedy's fastest college time in the 1000 freestyle was 10:23.61 and 5:02.13 in the 500 freestyle, both at Big Ten Championships on Feb. 22, 2020.
NEXT UP
Illinois will get ready for the Big Ten Championships. Swimming will begin on Tuesday, Feb. 23 lasting through Saturday, Feb. 27 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Diving will run from Wednesday, Feb. 24 through Saturday, Feb. 27 in West Lafayette, Indiana.
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