The Illinois swimming and diving team finished the weekend 2-1 with victories over Michigan State and Liberty on Friday and a close loss to Oakland on Saturday.

“The energy from the team was fantastic,” head coach Sue Novitsky said. “We need to use this as a learning experience and keep figuring out how to make adjustments mid-meet.”

The Illini beat both Michigan State (178.00-122.00) and Liberty (157.00-142.00) in East Lansing, Mich., on Friday. They were led by an impressive team performance in the 200-yard butterfly, in which sophomore Sarah Sykstus, freshman Gabbie Stecker and sophomore Lori Lynn swept the event to finish first, second and third, respectively.

Sykstus finished with a time of 2 minutes, 4.70 seconds just ahead of Stecker (2:05:26) and Lynn (2:05:52).

Alison Meng and Stecker also finished with first place times. Meng, a junior, claimed her second straight first-place finish in the 100 backstroke with a time of 55.72. Stecker claimed her first individual collegiate victory at Illinois in the 500 freestyle (4:59:73).           

Illinois’ final victory of the night came in the 400 free, where Meng, along with juniors Megan Marchuk and Sabrinne Gibson and senior Courtney Pope, beat Liberty with a time of 3:27.95.

“It was exciting to see many of our swims were faster or right on last week’s times,” Novitsky said. “Liberty and Michigan State gave us a run, and we stood up to the challenge.”

The Illini also finished second in eight races. Stecker held one of these individual second-place finishes in the 200 fly, as well as freshman Amelia Schilling in the 1,000 free (10:19.06), Pope in the 50 free (23.68) and 100 free (51.40), Jessica Holz in the 200 back (2:07.08), Erica Lynn in the 200 breaststroke (2:21.60), and Lori Lynn in the 200 IM (2:07.60). The 200 medley relay team of Meng, Erica Lynn, Lori Lynn, and Pope also finished second (1:45.46).

On the boards, Erika Murphy placed fourth in the one-meter dive (251.61), while Olivia Kassouni took fifth (245.99). Kassouni finished fourth in the three-meter dive (259.35), and Emily Fung finished fifth (225.39).     

On Saturday, the team went on to Rochester, Mich., where it lost a close match against Oakland with a score of 153.5-144.5. The Illini were competing fewer than 18 hours after competing in a meet Friday. Oakland out-touched the Illini by fewer than 0.5 seconds in three events.

“We did not rebound well from the big wins (Friday) night,” Novitsky said of her team’s performance against Oakland. “We did not swim a very clean meet and the lack of attention to detail definitely cost us some races.”

The Illini finished with six first-place finishes, two of which were distance freestyle events in which they swept the top three spots. Kayla Dlugopolski, Megan Marchuk and Alyssa Toland swept the top three spots in the 1,000 free. Dlugopolski finished nearly three seconds earlier than she did in Friday’s meet in the same event. The team also swept the top three spots in the 500 free, led by Pope (5:06.24), followed by Marchuk (5:09.46) and Mary Beth Howard (5:10.49).  Alyssa Toland also finished fourth in the event (5:17.17).

Pope also won the 200 free with a time of 1:52.86. She led the 200 free relay, along with Meng, Gibson, and Marchuk, to a first-place finish. 

“Courtney Pope was a leader for us today, winning two events and leading off our freestyle relay,” Novitsky said. 

The Illini suffered a tough loss in the 100 fly when Sarah Sykstus (57.46) lost to Oakland’s Julia Vela (57.44) by 0.02 seconds.

“Oakland was ready to go and put together a very strong meet from start to finish,” Novitsky said. “We can be better at keeping our focus and competing even if we don’t feel great.”

The Illini are now 3-2, 1-1 in the Big Ten, and will host their first home meet of the regular season Friday at the ARC against Illinois State. 

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