Titans To Perform At WIAC Championship
UW-Oshkosh's Mariah Marowsky is the top seed in two events and Sydney Challoner one for this weekend's Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Women's Swimming & Diving Championship (presented by Culver's) in Brown Deer.
Competition in the three-day meet begins Thursday (Feb. 13) and concludes Saturday (Feb. 15) at the Walter Schroeder Aquatic Center. Sessions start at 10 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. both Thursday and Friday (Feb. 15) and 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Saturday.
UW-Whitewater is serving as the host institution for the 49th women's championship that will be held concurrently with the 58th men's championship. Medals will be awarded to the top eight finishers in each of the individual events and to the individuals comprising the top three relay teams.
Marowsky, a freshman, is seeded first in both the 100- and 200-yard freestyles with her season-best times of 52.80 seconds and 1:55.79, respectively. She is also seeded second in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:14.44. Marowsky's freestyle times at 200 and 500 yards are both school records.
Challoner, a senior, is seeded first in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:11.89, third in the 100-yard butterfly at 59.69 seconds and sixth in the 200-yard individual medley at 2:15.45.
Last year, Challoner finished second in both the 200-yard butterfly and 200-yard individual medley at the league championship with times of 2:10.58 and 2:13.71, respectively, and fifth in the 100-yard butterfly with a swim of 58.81 seconds. Challoner set one UW-Oshkosh record with her time in the final of the 100-yard butterfly and another with her time of 2:09.75 in the preliminary of the 200-yard butterfly. She also joined Jennifer Lutz, Alexandra Schuster and Tessa Shorten for a school-record and fifth-place swim of 8:01.76 in the 800-yard freestyle relay.
Lutz, a junior, is seeded seventh in the 1,650-yard freestyle with a time of 18:39.88. She contributed three top 15-finishes during last year's championship by placing sixth in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 1:00.98, 10th in the 200-yard backstroke at 2:15.66 and 15th in the 100-yard backstroke at 1:03.04.
Sophomore Hannah Cunningham and junior Rebecca Birriel also own top 10 swimming seeds for UW-Oshkosh. Cunningham ranks fourth in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 59.89 seconds and Birriel ninth in the 200-yard breaststroke at 2:37.83.
Cunningham took 11th place in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 1:01.37 at last year's championship while finishing 15th in both the 50- and 100-yard freestyles with times of 25.29 and 55.39 seconds, respectively.
Birriel finished ninth with a time of 4:52.42 in the 400-yard individual medley at last year's meet while placing 12th in both the 200-yard individual medley and 200-yard breaststroke with times of 2:18.30 and 2:35.51, respectively.
In the diving, UW-Oshkosh freshmen Danielle Tesky and Allison Wucak both earned a pair of top three seeds. Tesky is seeded second with 332.60 points and Wucak third with 282.06 off the 1-meter board while Tesky is seeded second with 307.80 points and Wucak third with 277.85 off the 3-meter plank.
UW-Oshkosh finished fifth in the team competition at last year's conference championship with 296 points. The Titans scored in 15 individual events, including 33 points in the 100-yard butterfly and 22 in the 200-yard individual medley.
UW-La Crosse accumulated 835 points last year to win its eighth straight WIAC team title and 19th overall. The Eagles were followed in the team listings by second-place UW-Eau Claire with 798 points, third-place UW-Whitewater with 651, fourth-place UW-Stevens Point with 541 and fifth-place UW-Oshkosh.
UW-La Crosse and UW-Eau Claire share the conference lead with 19 championships, while UW-Stevens Point owns six league titles and former conference member University of Wisconsin four.
This year's championship features 20 student-athletes that have combined to win 14 individual and 24 relay first-place medals at previous conference meets.
UW-La Crosse's Lilly Larsen is the two-time defending champion in the 200-yard backstroke while Ellie Szczupakiewicz is the reigning winner in the 100-yard butterfly. Szczupakiewicz helped the Eagles' 800-yard freestyle relay squad to victory at the 2018 championship.
UW-La Crosse's Elizabeth Konkel and Sydney Vian will aim for back-to-back titles in one- and three-meter diving, respectively. Konkel received Diver of the Meet recognition for her performance a year ago.
The Eagles' Maria Vaudreuil placed first in the 200-yard breaststroke in 2018 and 2019 while adding a first-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke in 2018. In relay competition, Vaudreuil helped the 200-yard medley team to the title a season ago, while Amanda Wciorka, Aubrey Lonergan and Jaime Kloehn contributed to the first-place 200-yard freestyle relay squad. Kloehn helped the 800-yard freestyle relay team to victory at the 2017 and 2018 championships, and the 200-yard medley relay squad to a first-place finish in 2019.
UW-La Crosse's Victoria Campbell won the 200-yard freestyle in 2018 and secured relay titles in the 800-yard freestyle in 2017 and 2018, as well as the 400-yard freestyle in 2017.
UW-Eau Claire's Jessica Wilson and Anna Egli were members of the program's winning 400-yard medley relay team in 2019, while Katherine O'Connell and Olivia Hanzak helped the school's 400-yard freestyle relay team to victory. In 2018, Hanzak and Emily Ries contributed to UW-Eau Claire's victorious 400-yard freestyle relay squad.
UW-Stevens Point's Anna Pilecky won the 1,650-yard freestyle a season ago with a conference-record time of 17:09.61. She also posted a first-place performance in the 500-yard freestyle.
UW-Whitewater's Bailey Weston and Meredith Gustafson are the defending champions in the 200-yard freestyle and 200-yard butterfly, respectively. Weston also contributed to the Warhawks' first-place 800-yard freestyle relay team, along with Olivia Theobald and Shayna Putney. Theobald added 200-yard freestyle relay, 200-yard medley relay and 400-yard medley relay titles at the 2018 championship. Theobald was joined by Weston on the 200-yard freestyle relay squad.
UW-Whitewater's Renata Schlomann will also strive for consecutive titles in the 100-yard backstroke.