IOWA CITY, IOWA – Penn State women's swimming & diving broke a school record for the second consecutive day in the 400 medley relay on day two of the Big Ten Women's Swimming & Diving Championships at the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center Natatorium on Thursday evening.
The team stands at ninth place going into day three with 161 points. Maddie Cooke placed eighth and swam a personal best along with Abbie Amdor in the 50 free finals, while Margaret Markvardt and Stephanie Szekely also scored points in the 200 IM finals coming off personal bests in prelims.
Top Swims
The Nittany Lions began the evening with Szekely and Markvardt swimming the 200 IM, swimming 2:00.70 and 2:00.54 respectively. Both swimmers swam their collegiate career bests in prelims, with Szekely swimming 2:00.07 and Markvardt swimming 1:59.89.
Next was Maddie Cooke's eighth place swim in the 50 free (22.49), followed by Amdor's 19th place finish (22.82). Cooke's 50 free swim earned her the fourth fastest time in Penn State Big Ten Championship history.
Top Dives
The divers competed in the 1-Meter prelims earlier in the day, and were led by freshman Wei Wei with a score of 231.75.
Nittany Lion Relays
Penn State swam for seventh place and a school record in the 400 medley relay (3:33.26) with a team of Marie Schobel, Carly Hart, Maddie Hart, and Amdor. The record was previously held by a 2014 team including alumna Alyson Ackman at only one hundredth of a second slower than today's swim.
On day one, the women also broke the school record for the 200 medley relay and placed fifth, leading the team to an eighth place finish going into day two.
Next Up
The women will continue competition on Friday with prelims beginning at 11a.m. CT/12 p.m. ET and finals starting at 6:30 CT/7:30 p.m. ET. 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.
Check GoPSUSports.com for coverage of the Penn State swimming and diving teams during the season. Follow the team on Instagram at @pennstateswimdive, Twitter at @PennStateSWIM and on Facebook at facebook.com/pennstateswimminganddiving.
