West Lafayette, Ind.- The Penn State women's swimming and diving team completed the first day of the Big Ten Championships featuring several strong swims across the board.
The Nittany Lions had four different swimmers and one diver qualify for the finals across four different events.
The Nittany Lions were also in action Wednesday night for two relay events, the 200 medley relay, and the 800 free relay. Both teams finished in 10th place.
Ellie Brandbergh opened the first leg of the 200 relay with her best mark of the year, swimming to a time of 24.96. She was followed by Catherine Meisner in the 800 free relay who had her best mark of the season swimming to a fast time of 1:46.65.
The prelims for the 500 free which began the day Thursday saw Morgan Moore qualify for the finals with her time of 4:48.15. She finished the final in 22nd place with another fast time of 4:48.27.
Margaret Markvardt was the qualifier for the 200 IM after finishing the prelim in 1:59.08. In the nighttime finals, Markvardt had another fast race swimming to a fast time of 1:59.81 which was good for 13th.
In the 50 free, the Nittany Lions had two qualifiers. Molly Carson qualified with a time of 22.93 while Stanford grabbed the final qualifying spot with a fast time of 22.95. In the finals, Carson finished in 22nd and Stanford finished in 24th with respective times of 22.79 and 23.03.
In the one meter dive, Daphne Wils finished in the 16th position with a dive score of 250.35 which was good enough to qualify for the finals. In the finals, Wils dove to a score of 276.55 which was good for 11th position.
The Nittany Lions will continue in West Lafayette tomorrow Feb. 22 at 10 a.m. for the preliminary round and then 5 p.m. for the finals. The Big Ten Championship will conclude Saturday Feb 23.
For updates on Penn State swimming and diving, follow the team on Instagram (@pennstateswimdive), Twitter (@PennStateSwim) and Facebook (Penn State Swimming & Diving).