MADISON, Wis. – The Penn State Women's Swimming & Diving team is set to compete at the 2022 Big Ten Championships hosted by the University of Wisconsin from Wednesday, February 16 through Saturday, February 19 at the Soderholm Family Aquatic Center in Madison Wisconsin.
Spectators will be allowed at the championship meet but are required to wear masks.
COVERAGE
The four-day meet will begin on Wednesday at 6 p.m. ET/ 5 p.m. CT with relay finals and continue Thursday through Saturday as preliminaries start at 11 a.m. ET and finals at 6:30 p.m. ET. The championship will be streamed via BTN Plus. All live stats will be available on Meet Mobile and BTN Live.
THE MEET
The Nittany Lions will face some of the best teams in the country. In January, the CSCAA listed six conference teams in their Top 25 rankings. Michigan leads the Big Ten at No. 3, followed by No. 9 Ohio State, No. 10 Indiana, No. 15 Wisconsin, No. 17 Northwestern and No. 21 Minnesota. Penn State received three votes to be placed in the same poll.
THE NITTANY LIONS
In the distance freestyle events, Penn State is led by senior Madison Murtagh. She posted the team's fastest 1000 free (10:06.87) and 500 free (4:53.00) this season at the senior meet against Villanova and at the NC State Invitational. Sophomore Annie Walls swam the Nittany Lion's season best 1650 in 16:57.51 at NC State.
Sophomore Cat Stanford and junior Abbie Amdor are Penn State's quickest freestylers. At NC State, Stanford swam the 50 in 22.93 and the 100 in 49.15 while Amdor swam the 200 in 1:49.11 against Navy.
Senior Marie Schobel leads the Nittany Lions in the backstroke events, holding this season's fastest times in the 100 (52.92) and 200 (1:54.41).
In the 100 and 200 breaststroke PSU is led by senior Liv Jack and sophomore Kylie Rydland. Jack posted a 1:01.77 100 during the meet against Virginia Tech and Rydland swam for a 2:17.08 in the 200 against Villanova.
The Nittany Lion's quickest butterflyers are sophomore Morgan Rinn and freshman Maura Fluer. This season, Rinn swam the 200 in 1:59.68 while Fleuhr completed the 100 in 54.17.
Senior Sadie Schumann and sophomore Lizzie Danforth swam the 200 IM in 2:01.55 and the 400 IM in 4:20.65 at NC State to top the team's season times in the events.
On the boards, Penn State is led by junior Wei Wei and senior Sierra Shurts. At NC State, Wei qualified for finals in the platform dive and placed sixth overall with a score of 183.50. Against Villanova, Shurts swept the 3-meter and the 1-meter, earning her first NCAA zone cut in the latter.
THIS SEASON
The Nittany Lions faced seven teams and swam at The NC State invitational this season.
The women's team earned victories against Navy (209-91), West Virginia (181-107), Liberty (301-128), East Carolina (304-72), Bloomsburg (176-56) and Villanova (202-91) and fell to Virginia Tech (213-83).
At the NC State Invitational Penn State competed for sixth place overall with 856 points.
B1G CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY
Penn State has claimed three Big Ten women's swimming championships (2002, 2005, 2006) and 43 individual championships since first competing in 1992.
Penn State finished 10th at last year's conference championships with 410 points and earned 14 individual top-24 finishes while racing in the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center at the University of Minnesota.
Marie Schobel's sixth place finish in the 100 back (53.11) highlighted the Nittany Lions' performance over the five-day meet.
Penn State continued to impress in the backstroke events as Margaret Markvardt swam for 14th and a career best (54.09) in the 100 while Schobel finished 14th (1:56.90) in the 200.
Maddie Cooke swam Penn State's fourth fastest 50 free ever in 22.39 and earned 11th place in the event.
SCHEDULE
The event begins at 6 p.m. ET/5 p.m. CT Wednesday evening with relays followed by prelims and finals every day from Thursday to Saturday.
Wednesday Feb. 16 – RELAYS at 6 p.m. ET/ 5 p.m. CT
200 Medley Relay
800 Freestyle Relay
Thursday Feb 17 – PRELIMS at 11 a.m. ET
500 Freestyle
200 Individual Medley
50 Freestyle
1-Meter Diving
Thursday Feb 17 – FINALS at 6:30 p.m. ET
500 Freestyle
200 Individual Medley
50 Freestyle
1-Meter Diving
400 Medley Relay
Friday Feb 18 – PRELIMS at 11 a.m. ET
100 Butterfly
400 Individual Medley
200 Freestyle
100 Breaststroke
100 Backstroke
3-Meter Diving
Friday Feb 18 – FINALS at 6:30 p.m. ET
100 Butterfly
400 Individual Medley
200 Freestyle
100 Breaststroke
100 Backstroke
3-Meter Diving
200 Freestyle Relay
Saturday Feb 19 – PRLIMS at 11 a.m. ET
200 Backstroke
100 Freestyle
200 Breaststroke
200 Butterfly
Platform Diving
1,650 Freestyle (all but last heat)
Saturday Feb 19 – FINALS at 6:30 p.m. ET
1,650 Freestyle (last heat)
200 Backstroke
100 Freestyle
200 Breaststroke
200 Butterfly
Platform Diving
400 Freestyle Relay
Check GoPSUSports.com for coverage of the Penn States swimming and diving teams during the season. Follow the team on Instagram @pennstateswimdive, Twitter at @PennStateSWIM and on Facebook at facebook.com/pennstateswimminganddiving.
