Jan. 6, 2007
NORMAL, Ill. -
Following a month off from competition, junior swimmer Tracy Deyell recorded three top-5 finishes and fellow junior diver Katie Janonis scored her career-high with 241.15 points on the 1-meter board, but it wasn't enough as the Illinois State swimming and diving team fell to Penn, Nebraska and Florida Atlantic Saturday at the FAU Invitational in Boca Raton Fla.
The Redbirds' record stands at 2-5 on the season after falling to Penn 193-107, Nebraska 202-98 and host FAU 209-90 at the Owls' FAU pool.
"This was a very tough meet against three excellent teams," head coach Steve Paska said. "I'm very proud of the way our women competed and we received some great individual performances.
"This meet will go along way in helping us get better as we prepare for the Missouri Valley Conference Championships in February."
Despite the team's loses, Illinois State received several outstanding showings from its swimmers.
The versatile Deyell, a native of Richmond, Ontario, stepped up to notch three top-5 finishes. Deyell had her best finish of the day in the 100-butterfly event, where she came in third with a time of 1:00.47. Deyell also had a pair of fifth-place finishes in the 200-fly and the 200-breaststroke.
"Tracy had a very solid meet for us," Paska said. "She's been training extremely hard and came out and had several outstanding swims."
ISU saw sophomore Rebekah Layman, who was named MVC Swimmer of the Week on Dec. Dec. 5 after recording five season-bests at the SummaCare Invitational (Dec. 1-3), bounce back strong following the month-long break by finishing fourth in the 400-IM. Junior Christine Steinbach swam her season best in the same event with a time of 4:45.10, which was good for seventh place.
The Redbird 200-free relay teams had strong outings as well, notching two top-6 finishes. Junior Jena Allie, senior Kyle Pullman, sophomore Jessica Santi and junior Valerie Zaleski was ISU's top team on the day finishing third, while the team of senior Jamie Haseman, Layman, as well as sophomores Tiffany Rentner and Erin Woodruff came in sixth.
Woodruff, a native of Plainfield, Ill., also turned in a season-best performance in the 500-free with a time of 5:17.57, which gave her an eighth-place finish.
The ISU divers had an outstanding day led by Janonis, who was named MVC Diver of the Week on Dec. 5. The Mt. Prospect, Ill., native tallied her career-best 241.15 score in the 1-meter dive giving her a second-place finish. Janonis followed that effort up with a score of 233.95 on the 3-meter board, which tied her for third in the event.
Janonis wasn't the only Redbird diver to come up big, as sophomore Katelyn Prorok recorded her season-best efforts on the 1-meter and 3-meter boards with scores of 206.05 and 226.60, respectively.
Freshman Liza Perrino also recorded her season-bests on both boards scoring a 207.15 on the 3-meter and a 206.95 in an exhibition dive on the 1-meter.
"Today all of our women had great performances," diving coach Alison Cipri said. "This was the best we dove as an entire team this year.
"Katie's dives were outstanding. She is getting really close to qualifying for the NCAA Zone Diving Championships and that's very exciting for her."
The Redbird swimming and diving team returns to the pool on Mon., Jan. 15, for the final home meet of the season at Horton Pool against Ball State. The meet, which will include senior day festivities, is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.
