Harvey, Hilgendorf Shine At WIAC Championship

Melissa Harvey (Sr. • Kingsford, Mich.) tallied a pair of fourth-place finishes and Britney Hilgendorf (Fr. • Madison) helped break two school records during UW-Oshkosh's appearance at the WIAC Women’s Swimming and Diving Championship held this past weekend (Feb. 16-18) in Brown Deer.

UW-La Crosse scored 906 points to capture its third conference title in five years and eighth overall.

UW-Eau Claire finished second with 755 points, while two-time defending champion UW-Stevens Point placed third with 738, UW-Whitewater fourth with 433, UW-Oshkosh fifth with 265 and UW-River Falls sixth with 158. UW-Oshkosh’s point total was its highest since 2005.

Harvey earned UW-Oshkosh’s top individual performances in the 100- and 200-yard backstrokes. She placed fourth with her 100-yard time of 59.52 and 200-yard mark of 2:10.72. Allison Booth (So. • Middleton) also tallied a fourth-place score of 402.15 in one-meter diving.

In the 400-yard individual medley, Hilgendorf beat the UW-Oshkosh record by four seconds. She placed 11th in the event with a time of 4:48.54. The other UW-Oshkosh record came in the 800-yard freestyle relay, where Harvey, Hilgendorf, Liz Schneider (Jr. • Madison) and Emily Shandley (Jr. • Oak Creek) swam to a time of 8:07.39.

UW-Oshkosh’s top-scoring relay was the 400-yard freestyle group of Harvey, Hilgendorf, Shandley and Samantha Sommers (Sr. • Suamico). That combination finished fourth with a time of 3:39.65.

Sixth-place finishes went to Booth in the three-meter diving with 368.50 points and Sommers in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:14.52. Sommers also added an 11th-place standing in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 1:01.10.

In the freestyle races, Shandley took 11th at both 100 and 200 yards with times of 54.66 and 1:58.69, respectively. Cassie Dutko (Jr. • Oshkosh) also contributed an 11th-place score of 317.40 points in the three-meter diving.

Hilgendorf concluded UW-Oshkosh's top efforts with a 12th-place time of 18:33.71 in the 1,650-yard freestyle.

UW-La Crosse's Danielle Ellingson was named the Swimmer of the Meet and UW-Stevens Point's Anna Nyland the Diver of the Meet. UW-La Crosse's Rich Pein was selected the Coach of the Year, while UW-Eau Claire's Kirsten Lickel received the Judy Kruckman Scholar-Athlete Award.