Siow Wins 200 Breast as Badgers Finish Big Tens
February 18, 2006 | Women's Swimming & Diving
Freshman sensation Yi Ting Siow earned her first career conference title as the University of Wisconsin women's swimming and diving team wrapped up competition at the 2006 Big Ten Championships Saturday night at the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion.
Siow's victory came in the 200-yard breaststroke, an event in which she led from start to finish with an NCAA automatic qualifying time of 2:13.09, also a pool record. It should be noted that Siow's time was not even her best this season; she qualified for the NCAAs with a 2:11.59 mark at the SMU Classic in October.
'Yi Ting swam exceptionally well under the circumstances (being unshaved and unrested),' head coach Eric Hansen said. 'To do what she did in this conference is a tribute to her talent and hard work.'
Besides Siow, UW boasted three other individual championship finalists tonight, including Amalia Sarnecki, who grabbed seventh in the 200 breast with an NCAA 'B' time of 2.18.25.
As a result, the Badgers concluded the meet in sixth place with 358 points, behind first-place Penn State and its 552 points.
In the 100-yard freestyle, Sarah Hernandez reeled off a fifth-place finish with an NCAA 'B' cut of 50.00, while Hannah McClurg got her own 'B' time of 50.93 for sixth place in the consolation heat.
Also gathering a 'B' time was Jenny Gelden, whose mark of 2:01.65 was good for seventh in the 200-yard butterfly. Meanwhile, Jen Illescas (2:02.09, fourth) and Katie Imhoff-Smith (2:02.74, sixth) raced in the consolation heat.
Taking fourth place with a time of 3:20.63 was the 400-yard freestyle relay team of Hernandez, Susan Johnson, Sarnecki and Anna Trinidad. Their performance gave Wisconsin a top-four finish in all five relay events this week.
In other results, Johnson was unfortunately unable to defend her two-year reign on the 200-yard backstroke, as she took second in the consolation final with an NCAA 'B' time of 2:01.88. In that same event, Trinidad posted a time of 2:02.54 for sixth place.
And to begin the evening sessions, Rebecca Johansson, Gwen Jorgensen and Katie Twitchell claimed 15th (16:59.55), 27th (17:18.09) and 33rd (17:52.53), respectively, in the 1650-yard freestyle.
Amanda Witte led the diving team by scoring 217.35 points to earn 14th place in the platform preliminary round, making UW the only school to score in that platform that doesn't have a platform at its home pool.
'Our goal was to go all out today and get Amanda in the top eight,' diving coach Josh Seykora said. 'I was happy with how she hung in there until the end, but it's fair to say that we were both expecting a little more.'
In the individual awards, Christine Wanezek was Wisconsin's Big Ten Sportsmanship winner and Hernandez was UW's high point getter. For first-team All-Big Ten, Johnson, Hernandez, Sarnecki, Jackie Vavrek and Siow were selected. Meanwhile, McClurg and Gelden were chosen as second-team All-Big Ten.
The Badgers will be off until the NCAA championships March 16-18 in Athens, Ga.
