Northwestern Continues Dominant Performance in Day Two of TYR Invitational

Saturday, November 21

Evanston, Ill.

All Day

Northwestern

Day Two

Northwestern Continues Dominant Performance in Day Two of TYR Invitational

11/21/2015 10:05:00 PM | Women's Swimming and Diving

PRELIMINARIES RESULTS (PDF) | FINALS RESULTS (PDF)

EVANSTON, Ill. — Two Wildcat swimmers earned NCAA 'B' cuts, a horde swam season-best times, and Northwestern remained in first place after day two of the TYR Invitational on Saturday.

Annika Winsnes (Singapore/United World College) and Lacey Locke (Carmel, Ind./Carmel), two of Northwestern's best sprinters, swam times faster than the NCAA 'B' qualifications, earning them automatic consideration for the NCAA tournament. The two swimmers join Mary Warren (Hartland, Wis./Arrowhead) as Wildcat swimmers to reach the distinction during the TYR Invitational.

At the end of the second day of competition, Northwestern remained in the lead with a score of 716.5. Behind them, the order remained unchanged from day one: Michigan State (694.5), Grand Canyon (482), UIC (326), St. Louis (201) and Truman State (200).

The last day of the TYR Invitational is Sunday as preliminaries begin at 9 a.m. and the finals session begins at 3 p.m. at the Norris Aquatics Center.

Saturday's Preliminaries
Kicking off the day's events, a trio of NU swimmers earned their way into the 'A' heat of the 400 IM. Melissa Postoll (Acworth, Ga./Kennesaw Mountain) swam a third-place time of 4:28.11, Ellen Stello (Shorewood, Wis./Shorewood) came in fourth with a time of 4:29.03 and Sydney Modeas (East Amherst, N.Y./Clarence) finished in 4:31.47, a sixth-place finish. Lauren Abruzzo (Denver, Colo./Kent Denver) and Emily Launer (DeKalb, Ill./Rosary) joined the squad with entries into the bonus final with finishes in 10th and 11th, respectively.

Another day, another number-one preliminary performance for freshman Olivia Rosendahl (Los Angeles, Calif./Immaculate Heart), scoring 281.90 points from the 1-meter springboard. Eryn Scannell (Grand Blanc, Mich./Grand Blanc) and Monique Demaisip (Norwalk, Calif./Gahr) both qualified for the championship final with scores of 234.75 and 233.40, respectively. Mashal Hashem (Potomac, Md./Winston Churchill) received a score of 225.60, earning a spot in the consolation final.

The 100 fly saw a duo of Northwestern sprinters swim times fast enough to qualify for the championship final later in the day. Alex Grimes (Los Gatos, Calif./Los Gatos) and Maddy Sims (Downers Grove, Ill./Downers Grove) swam the event in 56.62 (5th) and 56.76 (7th), respectively. Stello, participating in back-to-back preliminaries, narrowly missed the cut-off for the championship final, but still ensured that she would receieve points for the 'Cats in the finals sessions. Aja Malone (Acworth, Ga./Allatoona) joined Stello in qualifying for the bonus final.

Winsnes finished second in the 200 free prelims with a time of 1:51.02. Ellen Anderson (Montgomery Village, Md./Gaithersburg) also picked up a qualifying spot for the 'A' heat, swimming an eighth-place time of 1:53.21. Modeas joined in the fun, swimming an 11th-place time of 1:54.57, making her way into the 'B' heat group later on in the day. Abruzzo, swimming a time of 1:56.52, qualified for the consolation final and Megan Purdy (Boulder City, Nev./Boulder City) earned the first alternate position for the finals sessions.

Five Wildcats earned point-earning spots in the 100 breast. Julianne Kurke (Atlanta, Ga./Parkview) was the lone 'Cat to make her way to the championship final, swimming a fifth-place time of 1:04.83. Katie Branch (Phoenix, Ariz./Horizon Honors), Peyton Greenberg (Louisville, Ky./duPont Manual), Lindsay Adamski (Hartland, Wis./Arrowhead) and Warren all moved onto the bonus final. With her 22nd-place finish, Georgie Pettibone (Santa Rosa, Calif./Analy) qualifed for a second swim as a part of the 'C' heat later in the day.

Both Locke and Postoll earned top-eight championship final qualifications in the 100 back, turning in times of 55.43 and 57.41, respectively. Grimes's performance in the event (59.20) earned her a spot in the consolation final in the evening.

Friday's Finals
Rosendahl continued her prolific trend with a first-place score of 285.90 from the 1-meter springboard, her second-best score of the season. Scannell was the third-place finisher in the event, scoring 251.20 points. Demaisip and Hashem finsihed in seventh and tenth, respectively, grabbing even more points for the Wildcats.

In the 200 medley relay, Northwestern's 'A' team of Locke, Adamski, Sims and Warren swam a season-best 1:42.26 to come in second place in the event and gobble up 34 points. Northwestern's previous best performance in the 200 medley relay was last week versus No. 18 Wisconsin with a time of 1:43.62.

Stello, Northwestern's best participant in the 400 IM this season, bettered her season-best by more than six seconds. Her time of 4:19.72 won her first place in the event and she was followed closely by Postoll and Modeas, who both improved their season-best marks in the event with third- and fourth-place finishes, respectively. Abruzzo, despite participating in the consolation final, also swam a season-best time of 4:28.51. Launer was right on her coattails with an 11th-place time of 4:31.16.

Sims and Michigan State's Sarah Love split the number-one spot in the 100 fly, as they both swam times of 55.15. That mark was Sims's best so far this year, imrpoving her previous time by a second and a half. Grimes also swam a season-best 55.49, finishing in fourth. Stello and Malone finished 1-2 in the consolation final in the 100 fly, truning in times of 55.67 and 56.40, respectively.

Winsnes earned an NCAA 'B' cut in the 200 free as she swam the event in a first-place time of 1:47.50 — her best performance this year in the event by two and a half seconds. Anderson, swimming a season-best time of 1:50.38, took home third place.

For the third event in a row, Northwestern finished in first place. This time, in the 100 breast, Julianne Kurke swam a season-best 1:03.00 to claim the lion's share of the points for the 'Cats. Branch, Greenberg and Adamski all finished in the top three of the consolation final.

In the 100 back, the 'Cats were unable to turn in another first place performance. But the point was moot: Locke swam the event in a season-high 54.45, faster than the NCAA 'B' cut, the second Wildcat to reach the feat in the day. Postoll also swam the event at a season-high mark of 56.07 and she finished in fourth place.

Wrapping up the day, Northwestern's 'A' entry in the 800 free relay finished in first place by about 12 seconds, swimming a time of 7:21.56 in the Wildcats' first foray into the long distance relay event this season.