Dec. 31, 2005
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -
Illinois State swimming and diving team landed in Florida on Friday and were welcomed with 75 degree weather. After becoming acclimated the team got ready for Saturday's competition. The swimmer's competed in a six relay format meet in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. for the CSCAA Ed Kennedy Memorial Meet. Teams were classified by their respective divisions. There were four division one schools and Illinois State placed third among these four schools.
Head coach Steve Paska was pleased with the experience the team gained from today's competition.
"This meet gave our team more experience," Paska said. "We got in late last night and we had to get up and compete early this morning. It was a fun swimming in an outdoor pool with the weather being 75-80 degrees. We were at the International Swim Hall of Fame. Some of the girls had never seen this before. The whole day was just an experience it in itself."
The `Birds took second overall in three of the six events. Valerie Zaleski, Kathleen Borkovec, Jena Allie and Kyle Pullman took the first second place in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:55.79. In the 150-yard breaststroke relay Brittany Armstrong, Rebekah Layman and Valerie Zaleski also took second with a time of 1:49.72. Monique Witkowski, Tracy Deyell, Borkovec and Laymen earned the final second place in the 400-yard freestyle which was the final relay of the meet with a time of 4:16.95.
"This was our first competition since Akron," Paska said. "The team looked okay toady, but I expected them to be a bit rusty. We just have a lot of work to do for the second half of the season to prepare for upcoming competition such as the back to back dual meets with University of Chicago and Purdue."
The Redbirds will stay in the warm weather in Florida for the next week practicing in preparation for their meet in Boca Raton, Fla. on January 6 at 9 a.m.
