The second place finish of Illinois State swimmer Angie Rawlins in the 100 fly was not enough to move the Redbirds up in the ranking at the Miami Invitational in Akron, Ohio. Illinois State finished the meet in fifth with 901.5 points out of the11 teams competing.
Rawlins second place finish in the 100 fly with a time of 58.61 was followed by teammates Melissa Fry who came in fourth (59.15) and Andrea Neabauer in fifth (59.52).
Heather Norris captured a third place finish in the 500 free with a season best time of 5:10.38 and was followed by Katie Finan who took fifth in another season best time of 5:11.91.
The night looked good for Birds as they started the meet with a blistering time of 1:47.38 in 200 medley relay which would have been good for first place, but later it was determined that a member of the relay jumped too soon from the blocks and the team was disqualified.
Illinois State head coach
Steve Paska felt his team recovered well after the mishap of the relay.
Im proud of how the team recovered from that, said Paska. We had so much momentum from that and then to find out we were disqualified was devastating. We came back though and finished strong.
Illinois State finished the meet with 901.5 points and could have bumped themselves up to fourth with a win in the 200 medley relay. Ball State won the meet with 1554.5 points.
The Redbirds are back in action December 31 when they head to Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. to compete in the Ed Kennedy Invitational.
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