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U-M Seizes First-Day Lead at Big Ten Championships

Feb 16, 2001

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Behind strong efforts in the relays and the 50-yard freestyle, the No. 16-ranked University of Michigan women's swimming and diving team grabbed the first-day lead at the Big Ten Conference Championships on Thursday (Feb. 15) at Indiana University. The Wolverines racked up 203 points for a 28-point edge over second-place Indiana (175) after six events. Penn State (167) is third and two-time defending champion Minnesota (112) is fourth.

Michigan's lone victory came in the final event, the 400-yard medley relay, as the team of Jennifer Crisman (Hudsonville, Mich./Jenison HS), Traci Valasco (Rochester Hills, Mich./Rochester Adams HS), Annie Weilbacher (Columbus, Ohio/St. Francis DeSales HS) and Samantha Arsenault (Peabody, Mass./Gardner HS) set meet and pool records with a time of 3:38.76, which also met the NCAA automatic qualifying standard.

In the first event final of the opening day, Crisman and Arsenault teamed with Missy Sugar (Newburgh, Ind./Evansville Day School) and Laura Kaznecki (Wolverine Lake, Mich./Western HS) to place second in the 200-yard freestyle relay, just 0.09 behind Indiana (1:31.07).

The Wolverines gained 62 points in the 50-yard freestyle as Crisman led a 2-3-4 finish with her NCAA automatic time of 22.52. Arsenault (22.87) and Kaznecki (23.19) swam NCAA consideration times to finish third and fourth, respectively, while Sugar placed eighth in an NCAA consideration time of 23.42 to round out U-M's four finalists in the event.


Bloomington, Ind.--The Indiana Women's Swimming & Diving team is off to one of its best starts at a Big Ten Championship since the Hoosiers won their last crown in 1981. The Hoosiers sit in 2nd place with 175 points after day one of the competition being held in their home pool. Michigan leads the pack with 203 points. Indiana has not placed higher than third at the Big Ten Championship since 1981 when the Hoosiers took home third place.

"Hear nothing, see nothing." That's the motto head coach Dorsey Tierney used to describe how her team can stay focused for two more days of competition after setting eight school records.

"You'd love to be 100%," said Tierney. "It was a good night. The 200-yard free relay was a real team relay. That really gets us fired up. We had seven girls to choose from for that relay, and we couldn't have done it without any one of them. For Jenn to have the night that she did, that's really a credit to her."

Cristy anchored the Indiana attack as she took home a pair of Big Ten crowns. The senior sprinter defended her 50 freestyle title with a school, pool and Big Ten meet record time of 22.32, the fastest time in the collegiate swimming this season and a time good enough to automatically qualify her for the NCAA Championship. Her third straight 50 free title included a victory over Michigan's Samantha Arsenault who won Olympic gold for the United States in the 800-meter freestyle in Sydney.

"This is the first meet I haven't been thinking and it has definitely been working. I had no idea how well I was doing until I looked at the board at the end of the race," Cristy said. "I'm so excited for the team right now. We have the most heart and spirit in the country."

Cristy opened the meet by getting the Hoosiers' 200 freestyle relay out to a fast start as she swam, what was for a moment, a school and pool record 50 yard free of 22.45. Anne Williams and Sarah Bowman kept the Hoosiers in the lead into the final leg. Susan Woessner anchored Indiana to its first Big Ten relay crown since 1985 as IU defeated Michigan by 1.21 seconds in a school record time of 1:34.55. Two years ago, Tierney wrote a letter to Bowman, who at the time was a recruit. She told her that if she chose to swim for IU, the Hoosiers would own a Big Ten relay championship. Bowman took her up on the offer and came through on one of the most exciting nights of Indiana swimming.

That 200 freestyle relay set the pace for an evening of record breaking proportions for Indiana. Before the night was over two of the oldest school records would fall. Freshman Sarah Fiden shattered the oldest mark in the Hoosier record book when she placed third in the 500-yard freestyle. Her time of NCAA provisional qualifying time of 4:46.99 erased two-time All-American and seven-time Big Ten champion Jennifer Hooker's name from the record book as she eclipsed it by nearly a full two seconds. That record had stood for 20 years.

"I was not expecting to get the 500 this year. Jennifer (Hooker) holds records at my high school and when I came here and saw she went to school here I thought it would be great to beat her records," Fiden said.

Sophomore Tina Gretlund joined in the rewriting of the school record book when she knocked off a mark that had stood for 14 years. Gretlund's time of 2:04.06 was good enough to win the consolation final of the 200 individual medley and .

The final IU record to fall came in the 400 medley relay as junior Susan Woessner, sophomore Megan Geers, Gretlund and Cristy placed fourth in the event and set a new school mark of 3:42.82.

The divers followed the swimmers lead as a trio of Hoosiers placed in the top eight in the one-meter and combined to score 42 points. Sophomore Erin Quinn led the way with a second place finish with 296.70 points, just 2.65 points behind Michigan State's Summer Mitchell. Freshman Cassandra Cardinell placed fifth with 280.60 points while sophomore Jennifer Sonneborn finished eighth with 277.30 points.

Diving coach Jeff Huber said the excitement of the meet may have gotten to his divers, but is pleased with the outcome. He believes now that his divers are exposed to the atmosphere, they will be ready.

"We were 1-3-8 going in to finals, so it's disappointing to drop, but 2-5-8 is one of the best three-meter teams. For Cassie (Cardinell) to go to finals, that's real good for a freshman. There were a bit of jitters, so I think they can dive better. We chart our dives at practices, and these dives were better than those, so I think we did well," said Huber.

Other top Hoosier finishers included, sophomore Kristy Martin who placed 10th in the 200 IM (2:03.74), junior Erin Rice who finished 14th in the 500 freestyle (4:52.74), sophomore Anne Williams who placed 11th in the 50 freestyle (23.63) and sophomore Sarah Bowman who finished 15th in the 50 freestyle (23.56).

Other Big Ten champions crowned on day one were Wisconsin's Ellen Stonebraker in the 500 freestyle (4:44.96), Minnesota's Katy Christoferson in the 200 IM (2:00.84) and Michigan in the 400 medley relay (3:38.78).

A total of four pool records and three Big Ten meet records fell on the first day of competition. The Big Ten Championship continues tomorrow at the Counsilman/Billingsley Aquatics Center on the campus of Indiana University with preliminaries at 11 a.m. and finals at 7 p.m.