Chambana Sun

The Illinois swim and dive team concluded the second day of the Big Ten Championships in West Lafayette, Indiana, with notable performances. Junior Logan Kuehne broke the school record for the 50 freestyle during time trials with a time of 22.79 seconds. Earlier in the preliminaries, she had swum the fourth-fastest time in program history at 22.96 seconds, finishing 25th overall and narrowly missing qualification for the C finals.

The championship format allows only the top-24 swimmers to progress to night finals, divided into A, B, and C finals based on their preliminary ranks.

Sophomore Sara Jass placed sixth in the C finals of her event with a time of 2:01.13, earning three points for Illinois after qualifying by finishing 24th in preliminaries. Freshman diver Matilda Garcia achieved a score of 238.85 on one-meter boards, placing her 20th and adding five points to Illinois' total—marking a significant performance since Taylor Shegos' eighth-place finish in 2020.

Seniors Anna Kurzydlo and Sophia Burwitz set personal bests in the 50 freestyle at times of 23.93 and 24.14 seconds respectively; Burwitz also improved her personal record in the 100 freestyle to 51.80 seconds. Freshmen Kylee Sessions and Martina Cibulkova also recorded personal bests—the former clocking at 51.67 seconds in the 100 freestyle and the latter completing a time of 5:00.48 in the 500 freestyle.

Illinois faced a setback when their relay team was disqualified due to an early takeoff between exchanges.

In team scores after Day Two, Ohio State leads with Michigan close behind while Illinois stands at twelfth place with a total score of eighty-six points.

Logan Kuehne's new school record is officially recognized as part of Illinois' top program marks.

The Illini will return for Day Three on February twenty-third with preliminaries beginning at nine a.m., followed by finals starting at four p.m., Central Time.