Northwestern Jumps Out to Huge Lead at TYR Invitational

11/19/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming and Diving

Nov. 19, 2010

Results

EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern opened a big advantage over its competition Friday following the first day of the six-team TYR Invitational at the Norris Aquatics Center, placing multiple swimmers in every championship heat including four in the 200 IM and five in the 50 free.

NU totaled 446 points, 237 more than its nearest competitor. Iowa State is second with 209 points, Cleveland State is third with 195, North Dakota is fourth with 127, Kenyon is fifth with 101 and UIC is sixth with 77.

The three-day TYR Invitational continues tomorrow, Saturday, Nov. 20, with preliminary heats at 9 a.m. CT and finals at 6 p.m. CT. Sunday's final day features a 9 a.m. CT preliminary session with 3 p.m. CT finals in the afternoon.

Preliminary portion of Friday's action:

Kathleen Patterson and Jenny Wilson both earned spots in the championship final of the first event of the Invitational, the 50 breast. Patterson qualified fourth overall in 30.33 while Wilson was seventh in 30.46

Headlining the entries in the consolation final of the event was Katie McCullough, whose 30.96 placed her ninth overall following morning competition. Joining her in the `B' scoring final were NU's Emily Russart (12th overall; 31.18) and Marybeth Hall (13th overall; 21.19). Megan Goss picked up a second-swim opportunity with a 32.17, which placed her 23rd overall and in the bonus final in the evening session.

Senior Ellen Grigg got off to a phenomenal start in the final TYR Invitational of her career, winning the preliminary heats of the 500 free by nearly three full seconds with a then-Northwestern-season-best 4:53.76. She was joined in the championship final by Alex Kraus (5:03.17) and Beth Loe (5:03.41), who qualified sixth and seventh, respectively.

Goss made the consolation final of the 500 free with a 5:05.13 to qualify 10th while teammates Erin Sosdian (13th overall; 5:07.40) and Caroline Walls (15th overall; 5:08.51) also picked up spots in the scoring `B' final while Fallon Fitzpatrick, Meghan Cavanaugh and Kate Stephensen earned second-swim opportunities in the `C' bonus final by placing 22nd, 23rd and 24th overall in preliminary action.

Patterson picked up her second `A' final slot of the day by taking second overall with a season-best 2:05.46 in the 200 IM, leading a group of four Wildcats to earn championship heat lanes in the event. Jacquie Godbe was fourth in 2:06.87, Meredith King placed sixth in 2:07.63 and Jackie Powell was seventh in 2:07.73.

Two more Wildcats found the consolation finals when Becca Soderholm (13th overall; 2:10.10) and Hannah Points (14th overall; 2:10.22) earned top-16 preliminary finishes. Meghan Fenn (2:11.52) and Russart (2:11.84) were 17th and 19th overall, respectively, slotting them in the bonus final for the evening.

Five Wildcats were among the top eight in the 50 free preliminary heats, led by Taylor Reynolds' first-place overall and then-season-best 23.44. Shelby Johnson came in fourth in a then-season-best 23.93, Powell was fifth in 24.07, Alex Kraus took sixth in 24.09 and Erin Reilly grabbed the final slot in the `A' heat after a three-way swimoff. Reilly and two other swimmers tied for seventh at 24.18, then Reilly and North Dakota's Devonne Dalin tied again with identical 23.92's in the swimoff to both find lanes in the championship heat Friday night.

Grigg (24.20), Hall (24.24) and Liza Engstrom (24.32) all won scoring final spots in the `B' heat, while Katie Eschenburg (24.41) picked up a bonus-final entry for the `Cats.

Finals portion of Friday's action:

Northwestern won the opening scoring event of the TYR Invitational with a season-best 1:33.31 in the 200 free relay. The team of Powell, Johnson, Kraus and Reynolds earned a .69 of a second victory in the event, pulling away for the win with strong legs from Kraus (23.39) and Reynolds (22.79).

During the finals swimming heats Friday night, the Lenz sisters went 1-2 for Northwestern while the Wildcats on the whole took four of the top-five spots in the 1-meter diving event. Sophomore Felicitas Lenz scored a Northwestern-season-best total of 289.05 to win while freshman Cosima Lenz took second with a 277.20. Carlin Dacey was fourth for NU with a 242.40 and Mary Kate Campbell captured fifth in 241.80.

Patterson cut more than a half-second off her time in the 50 breast to jump from the fourth seed Friday night to a second-place overall finish in 29.82. Wilson dropped .45 of a second in her championship final effort, moving from seventh after the morning session to a fifth-place overall finish in 30.01.

Russart (29.89) and McCullough (30.65) went 1-2 in the consolation final to take ninth and 10th places overall, while Hall tied for 12th with a 21.99. Coupled with Goss' 23rd overall finish with a 32.04, every competing Wildcat dropped more than a tenth of a second from morning to evening in the 50 breast.

Grigg, a first-team All-American in the 500 free earlier in her career, roared to Northwestern's first NCAA consideration time of the 2010-11 season with a `B' cut of 4:52.05 to win the 500 free by 1.51 seconds. Loe came in third in 4:57.86, out-touching Kraus' fourth-place time of 4:57.89 to give NU three of the top-four finishers in the event.

The Wildcats also took three of the top-four spots in the consolation final, led by Sosdian's 4:56.21, a more-than 11 second drop from morning to evening that would have placed her third in the championship heat. Goss followed in second with an equally impressive 4:58.12 to cut over seven full seconds from her preliminary time. Walls jumped from 15th after the preliminary heats to 12th in the finals with a 5:05.29 -- a more than three second improvement for the senior.

NU's top two bonus final entries took top honors in that heat, with Fitzpatrick cutting more than 7.5 seconds to win the race and take 17th overall in 5:05.04 and Cavanaugh dropping over six seconds to take second place in the heat and 18th overall in 5:06.98. Stephensen came in 24th overall with a 5:18.58 Friday night.

Patterson followed her second place effort in the 50 breast with a win in the 200 IM, taking first by .98 of a second with a Northwestern-season-best 2:03.88. Powell was third overall in 2:06.12, King finished fourth in 2:06.43 and Godbe also cut time in the finals, though she dropped from fourth to sixth place overall after a 2:06.62.

Soderholm raced to a win in the consolation final of the 200 IM with a 2:06.30, 3.80 seconds faster than her 13th-place morning time. Points took 13th overall with a 2:08.61 Friday night. In the bonus final, Fenn (2:08.87) and Russart (2:09.31) went 1-2 for NU to take 17th and 18th places overall.

Reynolds popped for a Northwestern season-best 23.35 to win the 50 free for the Wildcats by .04 of a second over a foe from Cleveland State. Powell (23.63) was third for NU followed by Kraus (23.90) in fifth, Johnson (24.08) in seventh and Reilly (24.19) in eighth.

After her NCAA consideration time in the 500 free, Grigg showed off her sprint chops to take ninth overall with a consolation final-winning time of 23.99 in the 50 free over teammate Hall's 10th place overall 24.04. Engstrom finished in a dead heat for 12th with a 24.31. In the bonus final, Eschenburg was 20th overall in 24.45.

Northwestern concluded Friday night's action with a 3.62 second win in the 400 medley relay, getting a season-best time of 3:46.48 from the team of Engstrom, Russart, Cavanaugh and Powell.

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