Haebig Wins Big Ten Title

Minneapolis – Nebraska senior Autumn Haebig captured the first Big Ten Conference swimming title in school history on Thursday night, when she raced to a school-record time of 1:44.39 in the 200 freestyle at the 2021 Big Ten Championships at the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center.
 
Haebig, a 2020 CSCAA All-American from Grafton, Wis., won Nebraska's first individual title since Lauren Bailey claimed the 1,650-yard Big 12 Conference title in 2007.
 
Haebig's school-record time eclipsed her previous record of 1:44.94 set at last year's conference meet.

After winning the preliminary race for the Huskers in the afternoon, Haebig was placed as the top seed for the finals. In the career-best time, she defeated Indiana's Ella Ristic by six tenths of a second.

On the boards for the Huskers, CSCAA All-American Abi Knapton splashed to a top two finish in the Big Ten's three-meter dive. Knapton finished as the runner-up in the event, scoring a career-best 372.20. She was within two points of Indiana's Anne Fowler, who won the event. 

Knapton's second place finish is the highest of her career and marks the fourth time that she has placed in the top eight at the Big Ten Championship meet. The score also qualifies her for the NCAA Championship later this season, securing the A-cut. 

Knapton wasn't the only diver to qualify for NCAA's either, as junior Sara Troyer finished 10th in the event with 313.70 points. Troyer qualifies for the NCAA Championship for the second year in a row, after she placed fourth in the three-meter dive a year ago.

The Husker's also had very successful performances from a handful of other swimmers in the final events.

Izzy Murray scored a C-final spot in the 100 butterfly preliminaries and placed 21st in the final, with a time of 54.41.

The 400 IM included two Husker swimmers in the C-final, as Madison Coughlen and Berkeley Livingston worked their way into the finals. Coughlen edged out Livingston in the evening race, timing a 19th place finish of 4:17.07 to Livingston's 4:17.72 finish for 20th place.

Coughlen also qualifies for the NCAA Championships with a B-cut time, giving her the chance to make it back-to-back years at the post-season event.

Nebraska stays in the middle of the Big Ten race, sitting in seventh place after the career-night. The current Big Ten standings after the third night of action are listed below:

1. Ohio State University (771) 2. Michigan (650) 3. Indiana (530) 4. Northwestern (424.5) 5. Wisconsin (327) 6. Minnesota (289) 7. Nebraska (276) 8. Iowa (246.5) 9. Penn State (189) 10. Purdue (185) 11. Michigan State (127) 12. Illinois (109) 13. Rutgers (30)

The fourth day of the Big Ten Championship meet will continue tomorrow, Friday, Feb. 26 with the swimming prelims beginning at 11 a.m., followed by the finals at 6:30 p.m.. The platform diving competition will begin with prelims at 11:20 a.m., the consolation finals at 2:05 p.m. and the finals at 6:40 p.m.