BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Penn State junior Maddie Hart led the Nittany Lions on the third day of the 2019 Big Ten Women's Swimming & Diving Championships, placing fifth in the 100 butterfly Friday at the Counsilman Billingsley Aquatic Center.
In the team standings, Penn State ranks 9th with 277.5 points.
Hart reached a pair of evening finals, also doing so in the 100 backstroke. In the 100 fly, she advanced to the championship final with a personal-best, NCAA B-cut time of 52.09 in the preliminaries, just 0.53 seconds shy of the Penn State record in the event, and then placed fifth time of 52.46 in the finals.
Hart also recorded B-cut times in the 100 backstroke, posting her best time of the day in the prelims (53.66) and placing 14th overall in 53.75.
Hart was joined in the 100 fly finals by the freshman duo of Brooke Matthias and Madison Ledwith. Matthias, who saw a season-best 53.74 in the preliminaries to become the seventh-fastest performer all-time at Penn State in the event, swam the evening race in 54.81 to place 16th. Ledwith also saw a new season-best time of 54.14 during the morning preliminaries while swimming the finals in 54.24 to place 22nd.
"We were on fire for the 100 fly," said Penn State head coach Tim Murphy, "Maddie Hart was a real workhorse for us tonight. An A-final and B-final is a pretty good night. It was an overall good event for us today."
Additionally, Nittany Lions Ally McHugh and Stephanie Szekely swam in the finals for the 400 IM. McHugh, who previously placed fourth in the 500 free, recorded an NCAA B-cut time of 4:12.83 in the preliminaries before improving her time to 4:10.61 in the finals to place 10th. Szekely also improved upon her preliminary time by about a second with a final NCAA B-cut time of 4:16.16 to place 19th.
Freshman Olivia Jack and sophomores Carly Hart and Jane Donahue both swam in the consolation finals for the 100 breaststroke. Jack, who recorded a NCAA B-cut time of 1:01.75 in the preliminaries improved to a personal-best 1:01.46 in the finals to place 19th and crack Penn State's top-10 performers list in the event. Hart followed with an NCAA B-cut time of 1:01.79 to place 21st, and Donahue notched a new personal-best of 1:01.97 to tie for 22nd.
A group of underclassmen led the evening's 200 free relay, bringing the team an eighth-place finish and recording a new season-best time of 1:31.50. Madison Ledwith, Kathleen Sheridan, Elizabeth Gaspari and Olivia Jack improved their seeded time by about two seconds.
On the boards, Kamryn Umbel recorded a 245.25 in the morning preliminaries while Christina Crowell saw a score of 203.90.
The Penn State women will continue competition at the Big Ten Championships Saturday with preliminaries beginning at 11 a.m. and finals starting at 6:30 p.m. All sessions will be streamed live via BTN Plus on BTN2Go. Complimentary access to BTN2Go is available to viewers connected to the internet network of a Big Ten university. Fans elsewhere can sign up for the pay-per-view webcasts.
Check GoPSUSports.com for coverage of the Penn State swimming and diving teams during the season. Follow the team on Twitter at @PennStateSWIM and on Facebook at facebook.com/pennstateswimminganddiving.
A fundraiser was launched to support freshman women's swimmer Nikolette Nolte and her family for costs associated with her leukemia treatment. Any surplus funds will be donated to THON and the Jessie Rees Foundation to help others facing pediatric cancer. Donate at gopsu.info/nikistrong
