The Illinois State swimming and diving team placed third in the Giant Eagle Zips Invitational held at Ocasek Natatorium in Akron, Ohio. The Birds held strong for three days in the third place spot finishing the invitational with 1,090.50 points. Tulane University held the first place spot with 1,344.50 points while Ball State took a close second with 1,289 points.
Leading off the meet in the 1650 Yard Freestyle, Christine Steinbach took a fourth place finish with a personal best time of 17:43.55. Following in Steinbachs lead was Jamie Haseman who placed eleventh with a personal best time of 18:01.30.
Helping the Redbirds secure their third place finish was Emily Richardson who swam the 200 Yard Backstroke finishing with a personal best time of 2:11.03. Richardson dropped a complete second off her time from the preliminaries earlier that day. Monique Witkowski placed eighth in the 100 Yard Freestyle marking another personal best time of 53.89.
Head swimming and diving coach
Steve Paska was proud of the way the athletes swam this past weekend.
The athletes had a solid invitational, said Paska. They performed better then they have all season. They have been training for this invitational for the past three months and they have a lot to be proud of after this weekend.
The Redbirds will return to the pool Jan. 8 for a two-day Country Inn and Suites/UCI Swimming and Diving Invitational in Irvine, California. The meet is slated to start at 9 am on Saturday, Jan. 8 and 10 am on Sunday, Jan. 9.
