Oct. 29, 2005
NORMAL, Ill. -
Illinois State swimming and diving team held its annual Red/White scrimmage at Horton Pool.
The red team came out on top at the meet with a score of 125-79 over the white team.
"The meet went according to plan," head coach Steve Paska said. "We really needed another meet to give the girls a opportunity to swim more. This meet is just another building block for a successful season. There were some encouraging solid swims for this early in the season and this early in the morning. The team has a lot to be proud of."
During the scrimmage there were a lot of stand out performances including; Christine Steinbach, who took first in the 1000 freestyle with a final time of 10:43.99. Rebekah Layman also swam to a first place victory in the 400 Individual Medley getting a time of 4:37.37. Kyle Pullman took the lead and kept it in the 50 yard freestyle with a time of 24.98. Another solid performance came from Brandy Peak in 200 butterfly with a time of 2:12.72. Steinbach, Layman, and Peak all contributed to the red team's victory.
"It was an unusual meet," Paska said. "It went pretty fast and there were no diving events. We will get back to normalcy when we compete next week. We have a solid week of practice coming up and then we go back into competition. The competitions coming up will have a completely different atmosphere."
Along with the first place finishes two swimmers achieved personal best times. Emily Richardson earned her personal best in the 1000 yard freestyle with a time of 11:03.50, and Casey McKittrick also earned one in the 1000 yard freestyle with a time of 11:01.63. Individuals on the team look to gain more personal bests times and records throughout the season.
"The team needs to stay healthy," Paska said. "We want to get the girls that are out of the water back in quickly and efficiently so they can compete. In order to be successful the team needs to adapt to times and put in a collective effort. The next step is to build on the positive races from today's meet and work on the races that did not go as expected."
The swimming and diving team will be competing at home of Friday, November 4, at 6:00 p.m. against Western Illinois. The Redbirds then will travel on Saturday to Northern Iowa to compete against the panthers at 2:00 p.m.
