Feb. 14, 2008
Final Stats
CARBONDALE,Ill. -
Led by a second-place finish and a school-record time of 2 minutes, 5.57 seconds in the 200-yard individual medley (IM) from senior captain Tracy Deyell, the Illinois State swimming and diving team stand in third with 161.5 points on the first day of competition at the three-day State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Championship, held on the campus of Southern Illinois at the Dr. Edward J. Shea Natatorium. Deyell's time broke her previous school record of 2:06.71, that was set earlier this season at the Zippy Invitational in Akron, Ohio Nov. 30.
Illinois State is currently behind Southern Illinois (222.5) and Missouri State (206), while Northern Iowa currently sits in fourth with 107 points, followed by Evansville in fifth with 96 points.
Illinois State head swimming and diving coach Steve Paska was pleased with his team's efforts.
"We had a lot of season- and personal-best swims tonight," said Paska. "We held our third-place spot throughout the competition. I thought we would be a little bit closer to the second-place position, but I have to give credit to (SIU and Missouri State). We have the strongest events ahead of us and will have to play catch-up tomorrow.
"Tracy had solid swims by breaking her school record in the preliminary rounds and then again in the finals. I knew there would be a better race in the finals between her and Andi (Rojas-Jimenz) from Missouri State. Andi only beat her by less than a tenth of a second, and was very good competition for Tracy."
In the relay events, Amy Schaefer, Kathleen Borkovec, Jessica Santi and Valerie Zaleski finished third in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:35.80. The 400-yard medley relay, which consisted of Christine Byron, Deyell, Schaefer and Zaleski, also finished third with a season-best time of 3:56.21.
In the individual events, freshman Ashley Bachler was also a top-finisher for ISU, as she placed seventh in the 500-yard freestyle with a personal-best time of 5:12.47. Schaefer, senior captain Christine Steinbach and sophomores Caitlin Falconer and Amy Werkema joined Bachler in the finals of the 500-yard freestyle, placing eighth (5:20.12), ninth (5:11.66), 12th (5:16.05) and 15th (5:20.00), respectively. Alison Wippermann (12th), Catharine Danenhower (16th) and Byron (18th) also finished in the top-24 of the 200-yard IM.
Paska was impressed with the way Bachler responded in her first conference competition.
"Ashley was originally recruited as a sprint freestyler," said Paska. "She has improved vastly as a collegiate swimmer. Her work ethic is the reason she has improved tremendously so far. She is starting to swim with some confidence and it shows."
In the 50-yard freestyle event, Zaleski and Borkovec led the Redbirds by placing fifth (24.54) and sixth (24.70), respectively. Jessica Santi (11th), Tiffany Rentner (14th) and Lindsay Dinkelman (20th), all finished in the top-24 in the 50-yard freestyle.
With two days of competition remaining, Friday's preliminary round will kick off at 11 a.m., with final-round action slated to begin at 6 p.m.
Friday's order of events is as follows: The 200-yard medley relay, 400-yard individual medley, 100-yard butterfly, 200-yard freestyle, 100-yard breaststroke, 100-yard backstroke, 3-meter diving and the 800-yard freestyle relay. All relay teams automatically advance to the final round.
Results for the Valley Championships will be available after each session on the ISU athletics web site at GoRedbirds.com.
