Indiana Freshman Ella Ristic Misses 800 Free Relay in Concussion Protocol

2021 NCAA WOMEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• When: Wednesday, March 17 – Saturday, March 20, 2021
• Where: Greensboro Aquatic Center / Greensboro, NC (Eastern Time Zone)
• Prelims 10 AM / Finals 6 PM (Local Time)
• Short course yards (SCY) format
• Defending champion: Stanford (3x) – 2019 results
• Streaming: ESPN3
• Championship Central
• Psych Sheets
• Live Results – Swimming
• Live Results – Diving

Indiana freshman Ella Ristic was not cleared by the team trainers to compete on Wednesday evening at the NCAA Division I Swimming & Diving Championships due to a concussion, head coach Ray Looze told SwimSwam.

Ristic suffered the concussion in practice while doing turn drills, according to a Tweet posted by her teammate Anna Kirkpatrick on Wednesday evening.

The team is hopeful that she will be cleared in time for the 500 free on Thursday, where she’s the 22nd seed in the 500 free. That’s one of only two individual events for her, along with an 18th seed in the 200 free.

Ristic was noticeably absent from the Hoosiers’ 800 free relay as the team’s best 200 freestyler. That relay still managed to swim 7:02.42 and place 11th overall with a team of Josie Grote (1:45.43), Noelle Peplowski (1:46.08), Abby Kirkpatrick (1:45.03), and Laurel Eiber (1:45.88).

Kirkpatrick did a lot to help Indiana improve on their Big Ten Championship time thanks to a 1:45.03 split on Wednesday, which was 1.17 seconds better than she was at Big Tens.

Looze lauded the performance of the veteran relay, which had 3 seniors and a junior, calling it “one of the best scrappy relays we’ve ever put together.”

That includes the senior Eiber, who took Ristic’s spot and swam an anchor leg that was 1.23 seconds faster than her lifetime best flat-start in the event. Eiber is also a member of Indiana’s 200 and 400 free relays.

Ristic, a California native, finished 3rd in the 500 free and 2nd in the 200 free at the Big Ten Championships. She’s the 6th-best performer in school history in the 200 free.

Indiana sits in 11th place after 1 event at the Big Ten Championships. They improved 2 points on their seed in that event.