The old adage says it isn't over till it's over. Friday, in its meet against Penn State, the Michigan women's swimming and diving team made the saying come true.
In the last event of the meet, the 200-yard freestyle relay, the Wolverines were trailing by 150 yards when Talor Bendel took to the water. With a burst of energy, she caught up to her competitors and took the lead with less than 25 yards left. Michigan won the event in 1:36.41.
"I was pretty pleased with the results," Bendel said. "We just put the relay together at the last minute because a few people weren't feeling so well. It was just kind of fun to get four people together and swim a fast relay."
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| KELLY MCKINNELL/Daily The Michigan women's swimming team needed a big day from Taylor Bendel to beat Penn State on Friday. Bendel led the Wolverines by winning the 100-yard freestyle, the 200 free and taking second in the 200 butterfly. Bendel also ancored the Wolverines' victorious 200 free relay team. |
Michigan won the meet, 156-136, by taking 12 of the 15 events. Senior Linda Riker had the most success in Michigan's only home meet of the season, winning the 1,000 free, the 100 backstroke and the 200 back
Former Canadian Olympian Shannon Shakespeare added two victories of her own. Freshman Kasey Harris rounded out the leaders with an additional two victories.
Harris' 2:00.77 time in the 200 butterfly was only .67 seconds slower than the time posted by the Big Ten champion in last year's conference championship.
"Kasey just had a great 200 fly," Michigan coach Jim Richardson said. "She's been training really well all season."
In the 200 individual medley Harris smoked her nearest competition by nearly three seconds. For Harris, merely swimming in that kind of environment was a novel experience.
"I'm just really excited to swim for the team," Harris said. "It's such a different experience swimming for a team. When I swam in high school, I swam mostly for myself.
"Now we do cheers and relays on the team. It just makes the meet really fun."
In this meet Michigan was hampered by the illness of All-American Jennie Eberwein. Though she did swim, her performance was not as impressive as usual.
"She's been sick all week," Richardson said. "I was debating whether to let her swim at all."
While the swim team had a relatively easy, relaxing day, the water wasn't as smooth for the diving team. Although as a team they looked fairly sloppy, individually, sophomore Hanna Shin had a strong outing.
"I was glad that Hanna dived very well," said coach Richard Kimball. "She just missed the NCAA cuts. She did a good job."
The Michigan diving team features two freshman this year.
According to Kimball, it will take a little time for them to get acclimated to competing on this level.
The Wolverines came into the competition with a winner's mentality and came out victorious.
"Overall, I think we swam really well as a team," Bendel said. "We're pretty tired and run down right now, but we pulled it out."
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