Girls swimming: Uni continues improvement with Senior Night showing; Boyce keeps on winning

Gargoyle photo by David Porreca (click to enlarge)The Uni Killer Whales celebrated Senior Night at Wednesday's dual meet with Urbana, honoring co-captains Deborah Ladd (left), Lor Sligar (center), and Natsuki Nakamura.

By Gargoyle Sports Staff
Published: Saturday, October 18, 2008 - 1:04pm

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URBANA — The Killer Whales continued to improve on last year's results with a narrow loss to Urbana High School in a dual meet Wednesday at the Urbana Indoor Aquatic Center .

Urbana defeated Uni 96-84, although the Tigers' 10 points from diving meant that Uni lost by only 2 points in the swimming portion of the meet. That was a big improvement over 2007, when Uni fell to Urbana 128-51.

For both teams, Wednesday's contest was more than a typical competition. It was the sixth annual Make a Difference Meet, in which the Killer Whales and Tigers cooperated in helping a charitable cause. This year's charity was Crisis Nursery.

The meet was also Senior Night for both teams, and the event gave Uni a chance to honor its three seniors — co-captains Deborah Ladd, Natsuki Nakamura, and Lor Sligar.

For the eighth meet in a row, junior Lisa Boyce won both her individual events, this time in the 200-yard individual medley (2 minutes, 9.99 seconds) and the 100 backstroke (58.11).

Boyce's time in the 100 back was almost 11 seconds faster than that of runner-up August Johnson of Urbana, who clocked in at 1:09.00.

In the 200 IM, Boyce and runner-up Jenny Hill of Urbana (2:12.95) finished within almost three seconds of each other, but they were more than 20 seconds ahead of anyone else.

Also winning individual events for Uni were junior Sian Best, who took the 100 butterfly with a time of 1:08.73, and freshman Milee Nelson, who won the 500 freestyle in 5:40.15.

In the relays, Uni's A-team of junior Erika Belmont, Best, Boyce, and Nelson won the 400 freestyle in 4:06.45, finishing almost 20 seconds ahead of Urbana's A-Team (4:25.99).

Nelson and junior Maritza Mestre each had second-place finishes — in the 200 freestyle (2:06.54) and 100 freestyle (1:03.30), respectively.

Urbana's Carolina Jimenez (2:06.51) edged out Nelson by just three-hundredths of a second. Mestre lost to Urbana's Katie Heinricher (1:02.63) by less than seven-tenths of a second.

Liz Allen also placed second for Uni, finishing 2.03 seconds behind August Johnson in the 50 free (29.00 seconds to Johnson's 26.97).

Uni relay teams were runners-up in the 200 medley (Allen/Belmont/Boyce/Ladd, 2:03.23) and 200 freestyle (Allen/Belmont/Best/Nelson, 1:52.19). Urbana won those events with times of 2:02.48 and 1:50.26, respectively.

Four days before the Urbana meet, Uni competed in the Oct. 11 Champaign Central Invitational. The Killer Whales scored 248 points to place third out of four teams, another big improvement over a year ago.

In 2007, Uni scored 91 points and finished last out of six teams. This year Mother McAuley led the way with 437 points, followed by host Central with 357. O’Fallon , which dominated Uni’s tri meet with Charleston, placed fourth with 159 points.

Boyce's first-place finishes in the 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle heavily bolstered Uni’s performance. Both of her times, 24.35 seconds and 52.34 seconds respectively, were significantly lower than her competition's. She finished nearly one second ahead the second-place swimmer in the 50 free (Mamie Hobbs of Central, 25.16), and nearly four seconds in the 100 free (Alex Moulton of McAuley, 56.96).

The 200 medley relay of Boyce, Belmont, Best, and Nelson placed second with a time of 1:59.71, less than two seconds behind McAuley (1:58.10) and not quite two-tenths of a second ahead of Central (1:59.88).

The Killer Whales will compete Tuesday in the Twin City Meet against Central, Urbana, and Centennial at the Unit 4 Pool.