Close Finish Against Spartans

Friday, November 11

Bowling Green, OH

6:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

145

155

Michigan State University

Photo by: Ruben Kappler, BGSU Marketing & Communications

November 11, 2016 | Women's Swimming & Diving

By: Daniela Carrillo

Final Results

Bowling Green, Ohio – The BGSU Falcons hosted the MSU Spartans and finished only ten points behind the Big Ten team.

The Falcons won eight out of sixteen events against the Spartans, from which senior, Victoria Griffin won two individual events. The 5'3" sprinter stopped the clock at 1:53.13 in the 200 freestyle to claim the win. Later in the meet, Griffin touched the wall at 51.04 in the 100 freestyle to get one more win for the Falcons. Also winning two individual events for the orange and brown was Maya Skorupski. Also a senior, Skorupski touched the wall at 55.59 in the 100 backstroke to win the event. Then came the 200 backstroke, in which the Falcon stopped the clock at 2:03.59 to claim the win once again.

NCAA Zones qualifier, Talisa Lemke, won one out of two diving events against the Spartans. Originally from Germany, Lemke had a final score of 312.90 to take the win for the Falcons in the 3-meter diving event. Later on, the freshman scored a 290.10 to finish second in the 1-meter diving event. The final individual event of the night meant one more victory for the Falcons, as senior Kristin Filby and freshman Danica Garbett placed first and second respectively in the 200 individual medley. The senior touched the wall first to stop the clock at 2:07.41 and take the win, while Garbett was only .29 of a second behind, recording a final time of 2:07.70.

The Falcons won both relays against the Spartans. The A team of Skorupski, Filby, Galic and Griffin won the 200 medley relay for the orange and brown. The relay, composed of only upperclassmen, stopped the clock at 1:43.50 to win the event by .23 of a second. Then came the last event of the meet, the 400 freestyle relay. The Falcon's A team was composed of one senior, one junior, one sophomore and one freshman. The unique relay of Griffin, Galic, Larson and Paris stopped the clock at 3:26.70. Freshman, Hannah Paris was the anchor of the relay, splitting the second fastest time in the event, only behind teammate Victoria Griffin, who was the first leg of the relay.

"I thought tonight, swimming against Michigan State, after last year with the meet coming down to the last relay, we came out and had a lot of energy swimming against a Big Ten opponent" said head coach, Matt Ense. "I talked to the women before the meet about how every year you look at your schedule and you see a big opponent on there. Especially with a Big Ten team, you don't get the chance to swim larger schools like them every year. We always look at it as a great thing, but then... do we compete against them? Tonight, we competed. We went out there and had in-season best times, with the 200 medley relay going over a second faster than what we have been this year so far. We had a few good swims in the 1000 freestyle, and from there it was all in-season best times. It took us a little bit to get going in some of the freestyles but it was a full out team effort tonight."

Coach Ense is in his second year leading the program for BGSU. He added, "Some of the highlights for the team tonight were that we had some upperclassmen step up and some freshmen do some special things. One of the greatest things I saw tonight was our 400 free relay being able to go a 3:26 and to have Hannah Paris, a freshman, anchoring a 51.1 is phenomenal right now. I haven't seen as much energy out of our girls as I saw on that race tonight. Some of the other highlights were Victoria Griffin winning four events again. She has been a staple for being able to get her hand to the wall first. We are in a hard part of the season and she is not feeling very well but she toughed it out and was able to win four events for us tonight. It was awesome to see the divers score points against Michigan State. They've had girls make the NCAA Championships for the last few years and for us to split the boards and for Talisa to win the 3-meter event and for Claire to get her NCAA Zones qualifying score again, I mean, divers are just doing a phenomenal job right now".

The Falcons will be back in action on Dec. 1^st, as they travel to Oxford, Ohio, for the Miami Invitational. The meet is three days long and will be hosted by the RedHawks', who will also host the 2017 Mid-American Conference Championships in February.