Meng fails to improve time at Last Chance Meet

Illinois’ Alison Meng swims the backstroke leg of the 200 yard medley event during the annual Orange and Blue exhibition meet at the ARC on Oct. 13. The Blue team won 120.5 to 100.5, and the Illini took second place overall.

Junior Alison Meng failed to improve her time in the 100 backstroke as the Illinois swimming team concluded the regular season at the Last Chance meet on Saturday.

Meng finished with a time of 54.30 seconds. She had hoped to improve on her season-best time of 53.94 she recorded last weekend at the Big Ten championships, which qualified as a NCAA B standard.

51.97 is the NCAA A standard time, according to collegeswimming.com, which would make it more likely Meng would receive an invite to participate in the NCAA Championships in late March. This weekend was the last opportunity for swimmers to qualify with their best times.

Eight swimmers traveled to West Lafayette, Ind., to get one last swim to try and qualify for the postseason. Indiana, Missouri and Purdue were the other schools in the pool trying to take advantage of one final opportunity to improve times.

Freshman Amelia Schilling ended her first collegiate year of swimming on a high note, as she improved her times in both the 200 back with a time of 2 minutes, 3.52 seconds and the 50 freestyle with a time of 24.57 seconds.

Get The Daily Illini in your inbox!

  • Catch the latest on University of Illinois news, sports, and more. Delivered every weekday.
  • Stay up to date on all things Illini sports. Delivered every Monday.
Thank you for subscribing!

Michal can be reached at [email protected] and @bennythebull94.