Huskers Finish Big Tens Strong, Set Multiple Records

The Nebraska swimming and diving team's trip to Iowa City came to a halt after the fourth and final day of the Big Ten Championships. The Huskers sent five swimmers to the Saturday evening finals, with one A-final race, two B-final races and two C-final races. Overall, the Huskers finished with 385 points, finishing 10th in the conference and completed a great team season. 

Starting with the preliminary races Saturday morning, Lindsey Stalheim got the Huskers started with the 200 backstroke, finishing first in her heat (2:00.30) and set a new career-best, while finishing 38th overall. Jessica Pentlarge also had a good swim, finishing fourth in her heat (2:00.05), set a season-best and finished 36th overall.

In the 100 freestyle, the Huskers were led by junior co-captain Autumn Haebig, who qualified for her third NCAA B-cut time this season. She also set a new career-best time (49.30) and finished 12th in the preliminaries, sending her back to the B-final in the evening. Jessica Pentlarge notched her best time of the season (51.33) and placed 56th. Savannah Savitt placed 61st, while also recording a new season-best time (51.56). Carla Gonzalez swam to a 63rd place finish (51.67), while Kaitlyn Barth recorded a season-best time (52.11), landing in 76th and Sutton Marvin set a season-best time (52.94), finishing in 82nd.

Tori Beeler continued her successful championship meet by setting a new career-best in the 200 breaststroke (2:12.19), qualifying for an NCAA B-cut time and finishing in 12th overall which was good enough for the B-final swim in the evening. Gwen Worlton swam to a 32nd place finish (2:16.17) and Gabby Baratta finished in 41st with a new career-best time (2:18.02).

The Huskers continued their success with a big event in the 200 butterfly. Madison Coughlen was close to re-breaking the school record and managed to finish seventh in the prelims (1:56.65), saving her a spot in the A-final in the evening. Izzie Murray and Maggie Berning had great outings as well, finishing right behind each other for 20th (1:59.51) and 21st (1:59.80) respectively, good enough for the two to take a trip to the C-final.

Kimberly Lanaghen was the next Husker to finish, narrowly missing the C-final by swimming to a 27th place finish (2:00.88). Berkeley Livingston had a similar situation, just finishing behind her teammates for 31st (2:01.51). Taylor Acheson finished in 49th (2:06.10), while Mira Rhodes swam to a 54th place finish (2:10.27).

For the distance swimmers, five Huskers raced in the mile (1650 free). They were led by Audrey Coffey, who performed her career-best, ranking second on the school-record list (6:18.56) and finishing as the eighth best in the Big Ten. Rachel Powers had a fantastic outing, beating her career-best time (16:36.40) and placing 15th. Katelyn Kilpatrick managed a 21st place finish (16:45.53) with her time. Molly Rosenthal finished with her season high (16:52.90), placing 24th, while Maggie Berning finished it for the Huskers with a solid 28th place finish (16:56.78).

On the platform dive, Hallie Roman put up a good performance, finishing 16th in the preliminaries (195.75) and worked her way into 15th place for the consolation round. Grace Tiernon had a good outing as well, placing 33rd (161.10).

In the final events, Autumn Haebig raced in the 100 freestyle B-final, trying to beat her time for earlier in the day. She finished just short in a tight race, placing 16th overall (49.87), putting an end to her individual competition for the week.

Tori Beeler came back from her race this morning in the 200 breaststroke with another great time, finishing 11th in the Big Ten (2:12.55).

In the 200 fly finals, Madison Coughlen charged her way through the water for sixth place in the Big Ten (1:55.78), improving on her time in the preliminaries. Coughlen also set a new school-record at Nebraska, beating the old one which she already owned and set at Rutgers earlier this season. Maggie Berning swam to a 23rd place finish in the race (2:01.12) and Izzie Murray finished it off for the Huskers, landing in 24th place (2:04.25).

The final event from this year's Big Ten Championships was the 400 yard freestyle relay. The relay featured Autumn Haebig, Tori Beeler, Jessica Pentlarge and Madison Coughlen. The relay swam to an 11th place finish (3:21.18) to put conference championship week to an end.

Head Coach Pablo Morales was pleased with his team's work throughout the week as they set new lifetime-bests and multiple school records.

"I thought it was a really good week," Morales said. "We had a lot of lifetime best performances, we had many school records, potential to have some NCAA qualifiers this year so all in all it was really a fantastic week. The girls showed a lot of tenacity, a lot of team spirit and team pride, a lot of perseverance and it was a great fulfilling week. It was really a great way to send our seniors out, finishing on such a high note."

The Huskers finish out the team-season with the conference championships ending tonight and will look forward to take a step forward next season. Ohio State led in points for the entire week and were crowned Big Ten champions with 1,503.5 points, followed by Michigan with 1,306.5 and Indiana with 964 points. 

The Nebraska swimmers and divers will return to the pool tomorrow for long trial cuts, before heading to Missouri next week, Feb. 29 to Mar. 1, for the Last Chance meet, where individual swimmers will try to create more lifetime bests and hit NCAA qualifying cuts.