Feb. 14, 2017
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Wisconsin women's swimming and diving team opened the Big Ten Championships with a pair of fourth-place relay performances on Wednesday.
Wisconsin was one of three teams to earn top-four finishes in both races held during the meet's opening session, the 200-yard medley and 800-yard freestyle relays.
Wisconsin head coach
Whitney Hite was excited to see his team preform on such a high level.
"That was a great start for us today," he said. "I'm excited to see them perform that way at Big Tens, but I think they have a good shot of being even faster at NCAAs. We've got some gas left in the tank."
The 200 medley relay squad of
Jess Unicomb,
Marissa Berg,
Beata Nelson and
Emmy Sehmann — a stalwart unit all season — finished with a time of 1 minute, 36.23 seconds.
"The 200 medley squad did a great job," Hite said. "We took a step forward, swimming that race faster than we did last year. It was definitely one of our best times in program history."
Led by Olympic gold medalist Lilly King, Indiana's winning time of 1:34.16 broke the Big Ten record and stands as the second-fastest time in American history.
To lead off the event for the Badgers, Unicomb sprinted to a blistering 24.34 finish in her 50 back, missing her personal-best time by only 0.02 seconds.
Senior
Abby Jagdfeld joined forces with Unicomb, Sehmann and Nelson to post a time of 7:02.95 in the 800 free relay.
Wisconsin settled in to the fifth-place spot for the majority of the race, but Nelson closed the gap for the Badgers. Her 200 split (1:44.33) was the fastest among the anchors and helped lift UW to a fourth-place finish.
"Beata did a nice job," Hite said. "She's still learning how to swim that 200 free, but she just finds a way to get it done."
After two events, the Badgers are tied for third place in the team standings, with 104 points.
"You know, three of the four swimmers competed in both relays. That's a lot to ask, but those three were definitely up to the task," Hite said. "We're excited for them and the rest of the team to get after it again tomorrow."
They will resume action Thursday, with preliminary races getting underway at 10:30 a.m. and the finals session set for 5:30 p.m. Thursday's slate features the 50 freestyle, 500 freestyle, 200 individual medley and 1-meter diving.
