Hoosiers finish 12th in NCAA Championships

For the second time in the University’s history, IU swimming has an NCAA champion.
Sophomore Brooklynn Snodgrass won the 200-yard backstroke in one minute 50.52 seconds, and the IU women’s swimming and diving team finished 12th at the NCAA Championships Saturday in Minneapolis.

Snodgrass joins Kate Fesenko, the 200 backstroke winner in 2010, as the only two NCAA champions in IU swimming’s history.

“My strategy for the 200 back was not meant to develop a win,” Snodgrass said. “I just wanted to get the best performance out of myself possible. I have been training all year to get my splits close, and I finally did it. It’s really unbelievable right now.”

Just before Snodgrass’s preliminary race, an IU relay team entered to race in the 400-yard freestyle relay. Snodgrass said just minutes before the relay, the coaches decided they wouldn’t compete.

That would have been the last collegiate race for seniors Kait Flederbach and Stephanie Armstrong.

“I will never forget the fact that Kait and Steph gave up their last college relay swim ever in order for me to rest before my backstroke,” Snodgrass said. “I wasn’t going to let them down in the race.”

Snodgrass now owns the second-fastest time in school history. She and Fesenko are the only two Hoosiers to finish under one minute 51 seconds in the 200 backstroke.

IU Coach Ray Looze recalled Snodgrass telling him after the race that her strategy was to lie back the first 50 yards and then go.

“The backstroke field here, the 100 and 200, were among the best compilation of backstrokers that the NCAA has ever seen,” Looze said. “It was just a genius stroke of strategy on her part, and it paid off with an NCAA title.”

Just before Snodgrass’s win, senior Lindsay Vrooman set a new school and Big Ten record during her final race as a Hoosier.

Her time of 15 minutes 44.45 seconds in the 1,650-yard freestyle was fifth
overall.

Vrooman was also fourth in the 500-yard freestyle on the first day of the meet. She earned the second-fastest time in school history and now has six of the top seven times.

Battling a stomach illness all week, Vrooman said she had hoped to place better in her final meet.

“I started feeling worse as the meet went on, and I knew the mile would be rough,” she said. “(By the 1,650) I was feeling a little bit better, but still wanted to do what I could — which was better than I thought considering my circumstances.”

Snodgrass and Bronwyn Pasloski both set school records on the second day of the competition.

In the 100-yard backstroke, Snodgrass placed fourth in 51.05 seconds, breaking a six-year-old school record. Pasloski won the 100-yard breaststroke consolation final in 59.39 seconds.

Senior diver Kate Hillman earned her first-ever NCAA points.

She was 10th overall in the platform competition, finishing with 307.20 points, and less than two points away from making the championship final.

“I don’t think this team could’ve given anything more, from Kate Hillman scoring here for the first time ever to Lindsay Vrooman swimming the mile sick,” Looze said. “I don’t know if a team has given more. They just would never say die.”

Looze said that although they hoped to place higher as a team, he is proud of how they ended the season.

“We wanted to be eighth or ninth, but we just didn’t have everybody rolling like we hoped,” he said. “Sometimes a national ranking doesn’t fully tell the story, but 12th is a great place to finish.”