University of Minnesota Athletics
WSD: Gophers Conclude First Day of Big Ten Championships
2/16/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming & Diving
Minnesota opened the league championship with a seventh-place finish in the 200 medley relay. The relay of Jennifer Hasling, Bridget McCoy, Sarah Perrott and Katy Coombe combined for a time of 1:43.41. Penn State's relay clocked a first-place time of 1:39.06, automatically qualifying for the NCAA Championships in March. With that time, the Nittny Lions beat their own Big Ten record in the same event.
Minnesota followed with a sixth-place finish in the 800 free relay. Kate Hardt, Valerie Tukey, Coombe and Erin O'Neil added a NCAA provisional time of 7:20.48. Michigan won the event with a pool record and an automatic qualifying time of 7:09.42 to win the event.
Following day one, the Gophers sit in sixth place, just six points from fifth-place Purdue. Michigan is the early favorite, posting 73 points, followed by Penn State with 72, Wisconsin with 67 and host institution Indiana with 58.
The Gophers will compete in some of their stronger events of the competition tomorrow afternoon. The Gophers will have Tukey, Hardt and freshman Amy Killpatrick competing in the 500 free, while Abby Ruess, Sarah Solfelt, Julia Quinn and Erika Bjorklund compete in the 200 individual medley. The Gophers also have three swimmers ranked in the top 15 in the 50 free event. Coombe, Perrott and Hasling will all compete in the 50 free tomorrow as well as the 200 free relay along with relay member Sara Vine.
Preliminaries begin at 11 a.m., while the finals is slated for a 7 p.m. start.
Players Mentioned
