The No. 3/3 ranked Hoosiers put up a strong showing at the Ohio State Invitational, swimming their way to nine first place finishes across the midseason meet.
Despite trailing going into the final day Saturday, Indiana women’s swim and dive pulled away, finishing with 2,256.5 points to outscore second-place Ohio State.
Indiana kicked off the invitational strong Thursday, as senior Anna Peplowski, sophomore Miranda Grana and junior Kristina Paegle all secured individual first place finishes. Peplowski’s meet started with a successful 500-yard freestyle, while Grana competed in the 200-yard individual medley and Paegle had a strong showing in the 50-yard freestyle.
Meanwhile, Grana, Paegle, senior Kacey McKenna, and senior Brearna Crawford propelled the Hoosiers to an A cut and 3:29:93 400 medley relay victory. With an A cut time, the four swimmers clinched their ticket to the NCAA Division I Swimming Championships.
The swimmers continued their success Friday. Peplowski earned an individual A cut in the 200-yard freestyle and posted a 1:42:36 time, good for the sixth best of her career and the win.
Grana took home two individual first- place finishes on the second day of the meet, winning the 100-yard butterfly and 100-yard backstroke. Grana’s career best 51.10 butterfly time made history as Indiana’s second-fastest time ever in the women’s 100 butterfly.
While Grana headlined the successful 100-yard backstroke for Indiana, junior Mya DeWitt and McKenna ended the event second and fourth respectively, giving the Hoosiers three of the top four finishes.
After winning the 400-yard medley relay Thursday, McKenna, Crawford, Grana and Paegle followed up with a first-place finish in the 800-yard freestyle relay, representing their second relay win of the invitational.
Heading into the third and final day of the invitational, the Hoosiers found themselves trailing only the Buckeyes, whose point total of 1,674.5 edged Indiana’s 1,657.5.
While Ohio State freshman Mila Nikanorov outpaced every other swimmer in the 1650-yard freestyle, Indiana senior Ching Hwee Gan put together a valiant effort. She raced to a 15:54.48 time and finished second in the event on the final day.
After swimming her way to an individual A cut and posting stellar performances across the first two days of the meet, Peplowski returned to the water Saturday to secure her third individual first place finish of the meet in the 200-yard backstroke. Facing competition from teammates Grana and DeWitt, Peplowski's 1:52.23 time was just enough for the top spot.
Crawford narrowly beat out the University of Louisville junior Mia Cheatwood in the 200-yard breaststroke, bouncing back from a ninth-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke Friday with a competition best time of 2:07:74 in the 200 Saturday.
Following a fifth- place finish Friday in the 100-yard butterfly, sophomore Ava Whitaker dominated the 200-yard butterfly Saturday, finishing the race in 1:56:56, almost a full second faster than the runner-up.
In the women’s platform diving event, senior Skyler Liu scored 325.35 points, claiming the first-place title over UCLA junior Eden Cheng and Ohio State graduate student Paola Pineda.
Indiana women's swim and dive's next event is Dec. 6, when it hosts the University of Cincinnati at Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatics Center.
