2014 Women’s B1G Championships Night 1: IU, MINN Split Relays

• Dates: Wednesday, February 19th – Saturday, February 22nd; Prelims 11AM/Finals 6:30PM
• Location: University Aquatic Center, University of Minnesota  (Central Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Minnesota (2x) (results)
• Live Results: Should be here once meet begins
  
• Live Video (If available): Available here
  
• Championship Central

Quick Hit (from our Conference Championship Primer): The Golden Gophers will try to three-peat as Big Ten Champions at home, led by the Kier(r)as – freestyler Kiera Janzen and breaststroker Kierra Smith, both Big Ten runners-up  last season. Indiana has the firepower to challenge, with defending conference champ Lindsay Vrooman slated to battle Janzen and Bronwyn Pasloski set to take on Smith. On top of that, Ohio State and Michigan should both be in the hunt, extending the rivalry that brought their dual a few weeks ago down to the wire. And everyone will be taking the opportunity to get comfortable in the Minnesota pool, which will host the women’s NCAA Championships in March.

Schedule:

200 Medley Relay
800 Free Relay

200 Medley Relay

First-year IU swimmers Gia Dalesandro and Kaitlyn Flederbach passed the University of Michigan over the final 75 to win the 200 medley relay to open up the 2014 Women’s Big Ten Championships with a final time of 1:36.69.  The Wolverines jumped out to an early lead after Ali Deloof posted the fastest opening leg in the field (24.00).  Angela Chokran extended the lead over the next 50 yards with a 27.30, but Dalesandro clocked a a 23.21 to close the gap before Flederbach (21.97) pushed past Michigan and held off a hard-charging Ivy Martin for the win.  Martin anchored in an NCAA-leading 21.18 to pass Penn State, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin to put Wisconsin ultimately in second place, finishing in 1:36.81.

Minnesota, the favorite in this weekend’s meet, was third in 1:37.14.  Michigan settled for fourth in a new school record time of 1:37.51.  Penn State touched fifth in 1:37.61, also breaking their previous school record.

Overall, the top five teams in this event all were under the NCAA ‘A’ standard, pushing the running total to greater than 20 teams with ‘A’ cuts in this event, with two full weekends of conference championships remaining.

800 Free Relay

The heavy-favorite Minnesota Golden Gophers ran away with the second and final event of Wednesday night, nearly cracking the 7-minute barrier to win the 800 free relay in 7:00.04, the fifth fastest time in the country this season.  While Jessica Plant had the fastest split of the quartet (1:43.88), the biggest difference maker for the Gophers was second leg Lauren Votava, who put Minnesota well ahead through 400 yards after a highly-contested opening leg.  2013 U.S. Open champion  Kiera Janzen closed the race in 1:45.84 for the win.

The top five teams were all under the ‘A’ cut in this event, including third-place Ohio State (7:05.33), as well as fourth-place Penn State (7:05.44), who got a school-record and Big Ten-leading 1:44.04 opening leg from Alyson Ackman.  Purdue (5th, 7:07.01) also achieved an ‘A’ standard.

Scores

Women – Team Rankings – Through Event 2

1. Indiana 74 2. Minnesota 72
3. Wisconsin 60 4. Ohio State 58
4. Penn State 58 6. Michigan 54
7. Iowa 44 8. Nebraska 42
9. Northwestern 32 10. Purdue 28
11. Michigan State 24 11. Illinois 24