Despite a last-place finish this weekend in the Big Ten Championships, the Illinois swimming and diving team left Ann Arbor, Mich., with its head held high.

The Illini finished in 11th place this weekend with a total score of 93 points, but almost 89 percent of the team achieved season-best times, and 73 percent of the team achieved personal records over the weekend. Indiana finished in first with 823 points.

“I’m very happy with how I did and how our team did,” senior Marissa Clapp said. “There was an extremely high percentage of lifetime best times on our team, and that’s really why we are here. We are here to swim faster than we have all season.”

Out of everyone, Clapp knows something about swimming faster.

In her preliminary race for the 200-yard individual medley on Thursday, Clapp set a new school record and beat her lifetime best time by four seconds and provisionally qualifying her for the NCAA Championships.

“It is outstanding for Marissa to get a provisional NCAA cut time,” head coach Sue Novitsky said. “This is one of those breakthrough swims that we have been waiting for. She put two strong swims together, and I’m very happy for her that she ended up getting a varsity record.”

Clapp continued the trend on Friday, when she shattered the school record and her personal best in 400-yard individual medley preliminary and earned another NCAA provisional qualification.

Clapp’s time in the finals was nearly identical, and she now holds the top two times in school history.

“It is very surreal, and I can’t really grasp it. I wasn’t very aware of the records heading into the race, but I’m very happy with how things turned out,” Clapp said.

The senior earned her third provisional NCAA qualifying time on Saturday in the 200-yard breaststroke, where she broke her third school record during the Championships.

“Marissa did great again today and capped off an amazing meet for herself,” Novitsky said.

Along with Clapp’s outstanding performance for the Illini, Novitsky was proud of the entire team. Before the tournament, Novitsky said the Illini were going to focus on themselves, not the competition, and with the number of personal bests set and school records broken, she was happy with the overall team performance on the weekend.

“We have had a lot of lifetime and season-best times. There have been a lot of big time drops and breakthrough swims,” Novitsky said.

The weekend also served as a reality check of sorts for the team, marking the beginning of the end for the team’s 2008-09 season.

“The end of the Championships is bittersweet because I will really miss the seniors, especially Marissa Clapp, who works very hard and is the heart of our team,” junior CeCe Marizu said. “In the future, I’ll have to step up and keep swimming hard.”

Clapp echoed the sentiments.

“Now that my races are over I’m a little sad because these 30 girls are the greatest swimmers and friends you could ask for,” she said.