Jan. 18, 2014
NORMAL, Ill. -
Junior Wenting Zhang broke the pool record on the 3-meter board Saturday during senior day at Horton Pool. Helping lead the Redbirds to victory were two senior swimmers and one senior diver who were honored at the meet. Illinois State defeated Washington-St. Louis with a final score of 198-102.
Zhang's record-breaking performance on the 3-meter board earned her first-place with a final score of 340.66. She also received first-place on the 1-meter board (326.10). Following Zhang's 1-meter board performance, sophomore Kelly Sanks earned second-place (241.49) setting new personal and season bests, and senior Maggie Kopp earned third-place (229.79).
Diving coach Phil Hoffmann is happy with the last performance Kopp had at home as a senior and how well the Redbirds' diving team is looking at this point in the season.
"Today's meet was good overall from top to bottom," coach Hoffmann said. "Maggie Kopp had a great 1-meter dive presentation. This was definitely one of the best I've seen from her. In addition Kelly Sanks scored her season best and personal best on the 1-meter board today. This meet set her up for next weekend's meet and conference. At this point in the season the divers are farther ahead than I thought they would we be and are looking good for the competition in the weeks to come."
In swimming, the Redbirds took home a number of first-place finishes and set new personal bests. Head coach Steve Paska accredits some of the program's success to the leadership styles of this teams seniors.
"Each one of our seniors has their own leadership style, and that has contributed greatly to our program and will be missed once they have graduated," coach Paska said. "I've seen Erica, April and Maggie mature into fantastic young ladies over the years. They have had success both in the classroom and pool. These student-athletes have set personal bests, season bests and school records. They are the epitome of student-athletes, and I am amazed at how fast the last four years have gone by."
The Redbirds started the meet off strong placing first and second back to back in the 200-yard medley relay. Sammy Schuckles, Courtney Taylor, Lexi Nash and Erica Halley took first-place in the 200-yard medley relay (1:47.22). They were followed by Rachel Root, April Livingston, Kristin Verkler and Katherine Nelson with a final time of 1:50.93 . Junior Marissa Yontz swept three events at the meet taking home first-place in the 50-yard freestyle (24.29), 100-yard freestyle (53.17) and 200-yard freestyle (1:56.50). Cecilia Holmes (10:30.08) and Valerie Jones (10:42.23) won first and second-place in the 1000-yard freestyle. The Redbirds finished the meet off strong winning first and second-place in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Halley, Nelson Schuckles and Yontz took first-place (1:37.31) and Nash, Claire Haggerty, Laura Paskoff and Holmes finished in second-place (1:39.74).
Coach Paska always emphasizes to start the meet with momentum and he believes these events set the tone for the 2013-14 senior day. A number of Redbirds set new personal records at the meet against Washington-St. Louis.
Verkler took third in the 500-yard freestyle while setting a new personal best time of 5:20.26. Haggerty went on to break her personal record in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:33.17). Holmes earned second-place in the 200-yard butterfly setting a new personal record for herself (2:10.33). Jones broke her personal record in the 100-yard butterfly (1:01.66) earning her a second-place finish.
The Butler Invitational will be in Fisher, Ind. on Sunday, Jan. 26 at 12 pm.
"It was a solid team victory as we move into the week of training for the Butler Invitational next weekend," coach Paska said. "This will be our last competition before we go to compete at the MVCs next month."
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