Following both a win and a loss at their meets, the Illinois swimming and diving team wrapped up its West Coast dual meets this week.
Starting off strong in Malibu, California against Pepperdine, Illinois came out victorious with an impressive score of 164-75. This was an exciting match for the Illini with first-place finishes across the pool and diving board.
On the diving board, the Illini also saw a series of wins in both the one-meter and three-meter dives. For the one-meter dive, freshman diver Matilda Garcia secured a first finish with a score of 271.20, followed closely by freshman diver Bethaney Mercer with a score of 270.23. In the three-meter dive, senior diver Taylor Michael secured the first-place win for Illinois with a score of 290.70.
One of the most exciting events was the 100-yard IM which featured a first-place finish by junior swimmer Sydney Stoll and a second-place finish by sophomore swimmer Sara Jass, whose finishing time of 58.33 made it the third-fastest finish in program history. Jass was also the first-place finisher for the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:18.21, an almost nine-second lead ahead of the second-place finisher, who ended with a time of 2:27.41.
“Excited for tomorrow and the rest of the season,” Jass said. “I think it’s been a lot of hard work.”
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Jass also expressed how “thankful I am for this team and what they’ve been able to do and support me and the coaches, of course, couldn’t have done what we did today without them.”
Expressing her excitement and thankfulness, Jass expressed how she felt after swimming the third-fastest 100 IM time in program history following Thursday’s meet. Jass also showcased her thankfulness to not only her teammates but also her coaches.
“After the close meet with Kansas, we definitely were excited to have a great win where we were able to rally around each other as a result of a lot of hard work and a lot of great swims,” Jass noted. “We do have a lot more confidence, we are excited to race again tomorrow.”
Jass spoke about the team’s large amounts of hard work since losing to Kansas earlier in October. All of the hard work led to a win against Pepperdine on Thursday evening, which is giving the team energy and confidence leading into Friday’s meet against UCLA.
Then a quick trip east landed the Illini in Westwood, California to compete in a dual meet against UCLA which resulted in a loss for Illinois. The Illini lost 73.5-167.5.
The Illini did see a first-place finish in the 100-meter freestyle as senior Lily Olson secured a first-place win for Illinois with a time of 51.81. On the diving boards, senior Taylor Michael won third place for both the one-meter and the three-meter with scores of 250.58 and 277.13, respectively.
Illinois however did see a number of close races, finishing second in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:34.44. Senior Lily Olson, freshman Margret Adler, junior Logan Kuehne and junior Molly Yetter barely lost their relay with a time of 1:34.44, since the first-place time stood at 1:34.10.
“We’re really excited, Vanderbilt is a great team and we’re excited to compete against them,” Jass said. “Having it at our own home territory is also great because we’ll have so many more fans and we just hope that as many people can come out and support us.”
The Illini will be back at home next weekend with a dual meet against the Vanderbilt Commodores on Nov. 4 at 11 a.m. in the ARC pool.
