Penn State edges IU for championship

Ann Arbor, Mich. -- Going into Saturday evening's final session of the Big Ten Women's Swimming and Diving Championships, IU knew what it needed to do claim the Big Ten title. \nThe Hoosiers led second place Penn State 429-416.50 heading into the last six events.\nA second place finish and school-record swim by sophomore Sarah Fiden and eighth place for senior Erin Rice in the 1650-yard freestyle padded the Hoosiers lead. Senior team captain Susan Woessner swam to a 1:56.58 school record in the 200-yard backstroke to claim victory. \nBut Penn State's four swimmers in the two finals heats brought the Nittany Lions within 5.5 at 477-471.50.\nThe Hoosiers held the close lead through the 100-yard freestyle behind a third place finish by sophomore Meghan Medendorp, but Penn State claimed the lead 512.50-499. \nNittany Lion sophomore Corrie Clark won the 200-yard breaststroke, and Penn State extended its lead to 560.50-515\nThe next event was the 200-yard butterfly. IU had five swimmers in the 200-fly final heats, compared to the Lions' one in the consolation final.\nA second place finish by junior Kristy Martin, sixth by junior Tina Gretlund, ninth by freshman Erin Smith, and 13th and 14th by juniors Jenny Bechem and Maggie Helmers helped IU close the lead to 1.5 points at 562.50-561. \nThe 400-yard freestyle relay was the final event, and the Hoosiers needed to place ahead of Penn State to claim the Big Ten title.\n"We were confident heading into the relay," IU swimming head coach Dorsey Tierney said of the Hoosiers chances in the relay. "Our girls have been great on the relays and we thought if we could get out early we could beat them."\nIU had a faster seed time in the event heading into Big Ten's, but Penn State had defeated the Hoosiers in the head-to-head competition in the event.\nPenn State swimming head coach Bill Dorenkott admitted he was tense heading into the relay.\n"I was nervous as heck," Dorenkott said. "We had four years of hard work tied up in one relay race."\nIU's quartet of junior Anne Williams, Woessner, Medendorp and Smith took position in lane five; right next the Penn State's team of junior Kristin Weinhold, senior Barbara Mulshine, freshman Dierdre Dlugonski and senior Piper Chamberlin in lane six.\nThe Hoosiers led the Lions by nearly a second after each leg of the relay and appeared to be Big Ten Champs as Smith beat Chamberlin to the wall at the end. \nBut it was announced the times were unofficial. Referees conferred and determined IU was disqualified, giving Penn State a 594.50-561 victory. The final score was the third closest finish in Big Ten Championship history.\nA disappointed group of Hoosiers gathered behind the starting blocks and broke into the IU fight song and all teams fans in the crowd clapped along, approving of the Hoosiers hard work.\n"We were the hardest working team out there, and our girls swam their hearts out tonight," Tierney said.\nIU and Penn State battled throughout the four-day competition. Woessner led the Hoosier swimmers with wins in the 100-yard backstroke and 200-yard backstroke. Her time of 53.59 to lead off the 400-yard medley relay set an all-time conference record for the 100-back and was the 14th-fastest time in American history in the event.\nThe Hoosiers depth prevailed in the 400-yard individual medley as the Hoosiers went 1-2-3. Sophomore Brooke Taflinger set a school record with a time of 4:16.78 while teammates Martin and Gretlund took second and third. Combined, the Hoosiers broke nine school records and posted four NCAA automatic qualifying times.\nWoessner was also named the Big Ten Swimmer of the Year and Tierney claimed her second consecutive Big Ten Coach of the Year award after leading the Hoosiers to their best finish since the championships has been a Big Ten sanctioned event. Woessner, Taflinger, Fiden and junior diver Sara Reiling were all named to the Big Ten All-Conference team.\nThe Hoosier divers posted as impressive of display as the IU swimmers throughout the competition.\nIU had four of the eight divers that qualified for the one-meter finals and three of the eight qualifiers for the three-meter competition.\nThe Hoosier divers were led by Reiling who won the one-meter and platform competitions and placed second in the three-meter event, just .75 points behind Michigan State senior Carly Weiden. The two crowns give Reiling five Big Ten titles and her third in three tries on the platform. The titles also helped Reiling claim the Big Ten Diver of the Championship award.\nReiling's score of 307.00 in the one-meter event was an IU Big Ten pool record. She thought the atmosphere of the one-meter competition, with four IU finalists, had a practice-like feeling and helped her reign victorious.\n"Having half our team (in the finals) made it a lot more like practice, and we all dive real well when we have a practice setting in our head," Reiling said. "Along with all the swimmers cheering us on, it was just like our home environment."\nAll of IU's six divers scored points in both the one and three-meter competitions. IU head diving coach Jeff Huber was elated for Reiling and said all the performances were impressive.\n"I am very pleased for Sara (Reiling), it was nice for her to perform well," Huber said. "She did a nice job with some of her tougher dives like we had hoped she would. All the girls we pretty excited, there was a lot of energy. It is pretty hard to get that many team members into finals in one event in our sport, like we did on the one-meter."\nDespite falling just short of their first Big Ten title, the Michigan public address announcer said it best in awarding the Hoosiers second place, "and the best second place team in the nation, Indiana"