Women's swimming sees individual success despite finishing 12th in Big Ten
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Despite a team loss, individual accomplishments highlight the performances of the MSU women’s swimming and diving team at the Big Ten championship meet this weekend.
During the four-day competition in Iowa City, Iowa, the Spartans took 12th place overall and scored 55 points.
Head coach Matt Gianiodis said he was pleased with the team’s performance and that it is tough to get points when competing against so many schools with such depth.
“We dove well and swam well, just didn’t get the opportunity to score a lot of points,” he said. “I wish these kids would have had a higher finish in the standings from a points standpoint.”
Gianiodis said many members of his team are hard working and was happy with their individual performances.
Senior diver Sarah Clay led the Spartans with a 12th-place finish on the three-meter board with a total score of 304.25 — a jump from her 303.25 score in the prelims.
In the 200-yard backstroke, junior Lauren Baisden cut a full second off of her seed time, racking a personal and team season-best time of 2:01.69, despite placing 28th. In the same event, senior Samantha Hilk finished with a season personal best of 2:02.22, good enough for 33rd.
Gianiodis said sophomore K.J. Burkland had a surprising performance in the 1650 freestyle with a time of 16:52.37, which earned her a 29th-place finish.
Junior Jenny Rusch dropped a full second in the 100-yard freestyle, posting a 50.77 time and finishing in 38th, and senior Morgan Piasecki improved her time, posting 51.64.
“Morgan had a great meet, (she’s) a great leader and incredible athlete,” he said. “Great Spartan for sure.”
Freshman Hannah Pugh took two seconds off season-best time in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:03.55.
And the 400-yard freestyle relay team cut three seconds off its best time, recording a time of 3:24.26. Team members included Rusch — who led off the relay with a 50.58 split — and senior Brooke Sauchak and junior Alexandra Pierce followed up next with Piasecki anchoring the Spartans’ 12th-place finish.
The men’s swimming and diving Big Ten championship meet is next weekend, and Gianiodis said he is hopeful they will be able to score more points because of their experience levels.
Regarding the NCAA championships, MSU doesn’t have any women swimmers going to the meet but might send one diver, which they will find out more about after the regional meet on March 8, Gianiodis said.
Gianiodis also said they will get a better idea of any men qualifying after the Big Ten meet next weekend.
“It’s hard, you know, there’s twelve teams,” he said. “We’re the only conference in the country that has twelve fully funded teams.”
“It’s difficult to score points. (The) performance level was really good, performed as well as we possibly could.”
