Feb. 22, 1998

Northwestern Women's Swimming and Diving Takes Third Place at Big Ten Championships

EVANSTON, Ill. -- The Northwestern women's swimming and diving team held off Wisconsin to grab third place in the 11 team field at the 1998 Big Ten Championships in Bloomington, Ind.

Northwestern led fourth-place Wisconsin by just eight points heading into the last day of action on Saturday. Tashy Bohm and Heather Payne got things started with 10th and 16th place finishes in the 200 back, respectively. Bohm touched in 2:02.49 and Payne went 2:05.99. NU kept it going by placing five swimmers in the top 13 in the 100 free. Courtney Allen led the way with a sixth place finish in a time of 50.46. Ashely Mosher was eighth in 51.43, Dominique Diezi was 11th in 51.13, Kelly Igoe was 12th in 51.16 and Jill Sieferss was 13th in 51.51. Everyone's times were good enough for NCAA consideration. Joy Stover took third in the mile, blazing her way to a personal-best 16:31.54. She missed second place by just .01 seconds. Amy Balcerzak picked up her second second-place finish of the meet with a time of 2:13.66 in the 200 breast. She automatically qualified for the NCAA Championships in both the 100 and 200 breast. Mary Beth Ellis was 14th in a time of 2:20.48. Cathy Lundin was 10th in the 200 fly with a time of 2:02.14 and the 400 free relay of Mosher, Allen, Igoe and Diezi finished second in 3:21.81. Balcerzak earned All-Big Ten honors for her performance in the breast.

NU next travels to Minneapolis to take part in the NCAA Championships, Mar. 19-21, at the University of Minnesota.

MICHIGAN        788.50
MINNESOTA       644.50
NORTHWESTERN    388.00
WISCONSIN       363.00
INDIANA         278.50
ILLINOIS        270.00
IOWA            226.00
PENN STATE      217.00
OHIO STATE      205.00
MICHIGAN STATE  165.00
PURDUE          153.50