Sept. 27, 2008
NORMAL, Ill. -
The Illinois State women's swimming and diving team opened its 2008-09 season Saturday at Horton Pool with the annual Red/White Scrimmage. Senior Allison Fishbein and freshmen Lauren Boyd and Michele Stoeppelman each had two first-place finishes to lead the Red team to victory, 170-140. The Red team won 10 out of 14 events.
Fishbein won both the 100-yard individual medley (IM) and the 200-yard breaststroke with times of 1:03.44 and 2:31.61, respectively. Boyd came out on top with times of 1:59.45 and 55.43 in the 200-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle events, respectively. Stoeppelman claimed first place in both the 1650-yard freestyle, with a time of 18:00.55, and the 500-yard freestyle, with a time of 5:18.00.
Head coach Steve Paska was very happy with the team's performance.
"I am very pleased with where we stand at this point in time," Paska said. "We came out and had a solid performance in this meet. The girls kept their focus, they were alert, and I was very impressed with how they raced. We had a very impressive showing for the season start, with a number of personal-best performances."
Junior Caitlin Falconer, sophomores Christine Byron and Molly Gomberg and freshmen Boyd and Jessica McGee all recorded personal-best times. Swimming in the 1650-yard freestyle, Falconer recorded a time of 18:25.75 to come in fourth-place. Byron broke her previous record in the 400 IM with a time of 4:53.75 to place third. Gomberg placed third in the 200-yard butterfly event with a personal-best time of 2:17.33. McGee placed first in the 50-yard freestyle, touching the wall with a time of 25.76. Boyd's victory in the 100-yard freestyle was also a personal-best time (55.43).
"This meet clearly indicates that we do have a very deep team and we have a lot of versatile swimmers that can swim a number of events and this will help us out in the upcoming meets," Paska said. "Our depth will play a huge role in the success of our team in the next 4 weeks."
In the diving competition, the six redbird divers each had six dives, three from the one-meter height and three from the three-meter height. Freshman Polly Hirt had the top finish followed by junior Katelyn Prorok, junior Liza Perrino, junior Annette Danilowski, freshman Brittany Tazzioli, and junior Elizabeth Herner.
Head diving coach Phil Hoffmann echoed Paska's positive sentiment regarding his divers in performance.
"I was happy with how they performed as a group," Hoffmann said. " All of the girls had a new dive, or dives. I was especially happy with how Polly dove, and it was good to see our team captain Katelyn back in the water. I look forward to a good start of the week leading up to the Notre Dame Relays."
The Redbirds will compete at the Notre Dame Relays Friday at 5 p.m.
