Illinois swimming and diving fell to Illinois State for the first time in over 10 years Friday evening with a final score of 157-143.

Leading up to the meet, which was the first away competition for Illinois this season, the Illini were expected to be affected by travel; however, head coach Sue Novitsky disagreed after the meet’s result.

“Illinois State had a great meet,” Novitsky said. “They came in and they competed hard and did all the little things correct. We were pretty sloppy and let a lot of points through our fingers and that definitely made a difference.”

Senior Kathleen Knight, who came away from the night with a Horton pool record in the 100 fly (57.05 seconds), said the Illini came into the meet a little bit sluggish, not to take away anything from Illinois State’s performance.

“The meet was very long and slow-moving, and it was really hard to gain any momentum,” Knight said. “If we had a good swim, it just sort of sizzled and made it hard to really build a lot of steam off of that and really get it going.”

Going into the meet, Novitsky adjusted the roster from the traditional lineup at this season’s home meets. Junior Courtney Pope, who took first place in each of her four races in their last meet against Michigan State, did not even travel with the team.

Instead, Novitsky said that she left a lot of her upperclassmen at home because she believes that her younger swimmers needed to gain the experience of stepping up and performing in high-pressure situations.

“For us to grow as a team, we have to be able to handle pressure, and I definitely wanted the pressure to be put on them tonight and it was,” Novitsky said. “Now, we have to go back to practice and take a look at what we can learn from this experience and how we can grow into a better team.”

In part, the goal to test the underclassmen succeeded, as sophomore Alison Meng took two first-place finishes in the 50 and 100 back with times of 26.90 and 56.80 seconds, respectively. Each of Meng’s times also set new Horton pool records.

Also among the successful underclassmen were sophomore Megan Marchuk in the 200 free (1:54.61) and freshmen Sloane McDermott and Sarah Sykstusin the 200 back (2:06.00) and 200 fly (2:06.06), respectively. Meng, Marchuk and Sykstus were also joined by junior Erica Lynn for a first-place finish in the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:48.06.

“Going into (the meet), I was pretty nervous,” McDermott said. “It was my first travel meet, but I thought I stepped up pretty well today.”

Still, the end result was the same and the Redbirds took away the Illini’s momentum, which they never got back, according to Novitsky.

Coming away from this loss, McDermott said she thinks that her underclass team has learned to swim races smarter and will take lessons from the meet so that they can work on improving in the upcoming week of practice.

“It’s easy to be really disappointed, but you can’t take that negativity and carry it with you,” Knight said. “You have to let if fall behind when you want to move forward, and to move forward you need to take away from other swims.”

Knight expects that the team will be backing off a little bit in the upcoming week of practice in preparation for the three-day Northwestern Invitational next weekend.

Novitsky previously said she wants her swimmers to swim when they are tired so that they can focus on sharpness for the larger meets when they have had their rest. Now, the first opportunity to show off this strategy is a short week away.

“At practice (this week), the focus has to be sharp. We have to be doing the little things better,” Novitsky said. “(This week is about) just backing off them a little bit, and letting their bodies recharge and freshen up a little bit.”

J.J. can be reached at [email protected].