INDIANAPOLIS — Wisconsin closed the 2017 NCAA Women's Swimming & Diving Championships the same way it opened the meet three days earlier, with a strong finish by a record-setting relay team.
The Badgers' 400-yard freestyle relay squad sent UW out on a high note Saturday with a seventh-place finish, one of two first-team All-America performances in the pool to go along with a historic showing in platform diving.
The team of senior Chase Kinney, sophomore Emmy Sehmann, junior Marissa Berg and sophomore Cierra Runge clocked a time of 3 minutes, 12.94 seconds to take seventh in the relay.
"To be able to have my last swim be an All-America swim and end on the podium with my team, it's pretty cool," Kinney said.
The performance gave Wisconsin All-America accolades in the event for the third time in the last four years and came on the heels of a swim in the morning prelims that saw UW's quartet turn in a Big Ten-record time of 3:12.91.
"We ended the meet on a really good note," head coach Whitney Hite said. "I couldn't be more proud."
The Badgers got another All-America effort from senior Danielle Valley, who closed her UW career by taking sixth in the 1650-yard freestyle. Valley swam just off her personal-best mark in the event with a time of 15:53.22 and became an All-American in the event for the second-consecutive season after finishing seventh last year.
Valley joins Amy Anderson (1997, 98), Ellen Stonebraker (1998, 99) and Carly Piper (2003, 05) as the only Badgers to earn multiple first-team All-America laurels in the 1650 free.
"No one is more deserving," Hite said. "She gives you everything that she's got and she's been a pleasure to coach."
With big point=scoring performances from the Valley and the relay team, the Badgers finished in 15th place by totaling 98 points. That gave their Badgers a top-15 finish at the NCAA meet for the eighth time in the last nine seasons.
"We fought really hard for 15th," Hite said. "I thought the girls did a really great job representing Wisconsin. We fought for every point."
Making the first NCAA championships appearance by a Wisconsin diver since 1989, senior Ashley Peterson posted one of the program's best-ever showings Saturday en route to second-team All-America honors.
Peterson, the first Badger to compete at the NCAA meet on the 10-meter platform, became UW's first All-American in a diving event in 32 years by taking 15th place on the 10-meter platform.
It's the first All-America laurel for a UW diver since Kim DeCloux was 15th on the 1-meter springboard at the 1985 NCAA Championships.
"I definitely didn't plan on getting top 16 so being able to do that was really cool," Peterson said. "It was great to be able to tell the swimmers I did it, because every point counts at NCAAs."
Peterson joined DeCloux as the only UW divers to earn All-America honors since the NCAA began sponsoring a women's championship meet in 1982 (D'Lynn Damron, Peggy Anderson and Monique Gamelcy combined for nine All-America performances in AIAW competition between 1970 and 1977).
"She's going to be the spark that ignites the (diving) program," Hite said. "Not a highly-recruited athlete, but someone who has come in and done great things, historic things, with a lot of hard work."
Peterson grabbed her spot in the consolation final by posting a score of 251.25 in the trials, an effort that had her ranked 15th after the first five dives. She added another 218.55 points over her final five dives in the consolation final, finishing with a score of 469.8.
"(Diving coach) Anton (Sloubunov) and I have worked for four years and I think that we both dedicated a lot of our time, so being able to just know that those four years were worth it was nice to see," Peterson said.
Freshman Beata Nelson narrowly missed a spot in the final of the 200 backstroke, finishing 17th with a time of 1:52.62. Sophomore Jess Unicomb was 34th in 1:54.15.
In addition to Valley, three other seniors competed in individual events for the final time as Badgers, with Maria Carlson finishing 22nd in the 200 breaststroke in 2:10.46, Kinney taking 29th in the 100 free in 48.60 and Dana Grindall finishing 44th in the 200 butterfly in 1:59.15.
"It's probably one of the hardest things I've ever done but I'm really proud of myself for being a Badger for four years," Kinney said after competing in her final collegiate meet. "Everyone on the team is so tough, and we have to be tough to be able to train every day and having each other makes it a lot better, but I'm really proud to be a Badger."
