Michelle Williams, Taylor Vargo Break Ohio State School Record at Last-Chance Meet

The Ohio State Last Chance Meet, which was an even exclusively entered by women, saw a slew of Big Ten swimmers possibly (or probably) earn their NCAA Qualifications.

The big story is Ohio State senior Michelle Williams, who broke the Ohio State school record in the 100 yard freestyle with a 48.39, and faulted herself up to 22nd in the nation from a tie for 49th in the nation and pencils her in for individual swims in Minneapolis. The old record was a 48.48 belonging to Megan Detro from 2011.

There was one other Ohio State qualifiers out of the meet:

• Taylor Vargo – 200 breast – 2:10.35 – was 48th in the nation, now moves up to 33rd. That’s not an iron-clad lock, but it’s a pretty solid bet. That’s another School Record, bettering her own 2:11.62 from Big Tens.

For Wisconsin, the big qualifier was:

• Rebecka Palm – 100 fly – 52.62 – was t-44th in the country, is now 31st in the country, which leaves her in good shape for individual swims at NCAA’s to go with her relay entries for Wisconsin. She dropped three-tenths from her time at Big Tens.

Notre Dame’s Christen McDonough tried, but was unsuccessful, in sneaking up her 100 breaststroke qualifying time; she went a 1:00.78 at her best, which leaves her 1:00.51 (36th in the country) as her best shot. Wisconsin’s Anna Meinholz tried the same, but her 1:01.23 was unable to improve upon her previous best of 1:01.10, which means she’s probably out for individual swims at NCAA’s.

Notre Dame’s Kelly Ryan was a 1:55.30 in the 200 backstroke, which moved her up the rankings significantly, but left her only in a tie for 46th. That’s unlikely to earn an invite to NCAA’s.

The only other probable qualifier that we were able to pick out at this meet was Penn State’s Katie Rowe:

• Katie Rowe – 200 fly – 1:55.34 – that huge drop of 1.5 seconds for her moves her from 39th in the country, and on the wrong side bubble, to 13th in the country, and an All-American contender. Further, there’s at least one swimmer ahead of her, Florida’s Elizabeth Beisel, who probably won’t swim this race at NCAA’s.