Dec. 2, 2005
AKRON, Ohio -
With a full day of swimming and diving Illinois State closed the first day of competition at the Summa Care Invitation in Akron, Ohio with a first place position. The team currently is sitting with 524 points and looks to hold on to first through out the weekend and continue its success during the second day of competition.
Kyle Pullman, Valerie Zaleski, Tiffany Rentner, and Monique Witkowski started out tonight's final meet with a victory in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:36.55. The opening victory got the ball rolling for the team and they continued the momentum throughout the night.
"Overall this was a good start," head coach Steve Paska said. " The morning went fine, but the finals at night went better. Everyone swam season bests and a number of girls accomplished personal bests tonight."
Leading the way for individual events was Christine Steinbach. She started out with a third place finish in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:04.15 earning a season best and a personal best. In the 200-yard individual medley Becky Laymen took fourth with a time of 2:08.88 contributing to her team's success. The 50-yard freestyle toped the nights events with a number of season bests and personal bests. Monique Witkowski (24.07) and Kyle Pullman(24.12) took a second and third place finish in the final round. Zaleski also swam the 50-yard freestyle earning a time of 24.77. Rentner, Brittany Armstrong, and Santi all had personal bests in this event. Finishing up the night with a second place finish was Witkowski, Armstrong, Tracy Deyell, and Pullman in the 400-yard medley relay with a time of 3:55.49.
"It was a competitive meet," Paska said. "For the next two days we want to keep the momentum going and use the same energy we used today. We want to come prepared to compete tomorrow and if we come prepared in the morning than we should have another day like today."
All of the divers for Illinois State placed in the top 15 during preliminaries and three of them (Emily Hirt, Kaitlin Schneider, and Katie Janonis) continued on to the finals. Head diving coach Tom Davidson was pleased because the divers did everything he expected to them to do.
"Katie (Janonis) finished sixth and was the top scorer for our team," Davidson said. "She performed a new dive and did very well. The preliminaries went better than the finals. The team needs to concentrate on what they did tonight and be able to bring that into tomorrow's meet."
Tomorrow's preliminary round kicks off at 9 a.m. From the preliminary round each team has two relay teams and 14 individuals to move on into the finals. The final round begins at 6 p.m. There are two days left in the meet and the `Birds are in the number one spot and will challenge themselves to keep the lead for the rest of the weekend.
