The Minnesota womenâÄôs swimming and diving team took second at the Big Ten championship meet over the weekend. The No. 10 Gophers ended with 665 points, while first-place Indiana had 823 to win the title. Winning 10 events doubles the teamâÄôs total wins from last season, co-coach Kelly Kremer said. The Gophers broke all but four school records during the championships this year. âÄúI donâÄôt think we couldâÄôve asked for more,âÄù Kremer said. âÄúAs a team, we did everything we could in terms of supporting each other. ItâÄôs been an outstanding performance for our team.âÄù Senior Jenny Shaughnessy earned the Swimmer of the Championship award when she held the GophersâÄô top score and won the 200 and 400 individual medley and helped the Gophers to wins in the 400 and 800 free relay. MinnesotaâÄôs team started off strong, ending the first day of competition in Ann Arbor, Mich., in first place. The GopherâÄôs 800 free relay team won its fourth-straight Big Ten event title. On day two, Minnesota won their first 200 free relay title since 1992. Kaylee Jamison, Meredith McCarthy, Meagan Radecke and Stacy Busack combined for a time of 1:28.74. In a school-record time, Shaughnessy also won the 200 individual medley . Minnesota won three events on Saturday and trailed Indiana by 72 points. Shaughnessy won her second straight 400 individual medley when she touched the wall in an automatic qualifying time of 4:06.37. McCarthy then won her first individual event of her career when she set a career-best time of 1:45.01 in the 200 freestyle; Busack followed with a second-place finish. Following that, Jillian Tyler broke her own Big Ten record when she won the 100 breaststroke. Heading into the final day of competition, Minnesota knew they had a chance to take the title, Kremer said. âÄúI think, for most of the day, we felt like we might have a chance,âÄù he said. âÄúI know we ended up scoring more points than them in swimming, but we didnâÄôt know how they would dive. They dove outstanding today in platform. ThatâÄôs the point where we knew we were battling for second.âÄù The Gophers won four events on the final day to solidify second place. Busack won the 100 freestyle and Megan Braun won the 200 butterfly âÄî both were the swimmersâÄô first individual honors. Jillian Tyler swam an NCAA automatic qualifying time of 2:09.67 in the 200 yard breaststroke, but it wasnâÄôt enough for her to win, as WisconsinâÄôs Ashley Wanland edged her out. Kremer said Tyler was great this weekend and now they will prepare her for the NCAA tournament in a month. The Gophers ended the meet on a good note by winning the last event, the 400 free relay. Kremer said it was nice to win that last event. âÄúWe wanted to make sure we finished the way our Minnesota team should, which is to leave everything in the pool and be the most energetic team on deck,âÄù he said âÄúWe did that. We were by far the loudest.âÄù
Despite record breaking performances, Gophers come up short at Big Tens
Published February 22, 2009
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