Huskers Open Season with Jacks

The Nebraska swimming and diving team opens its 2021-22 regular season by playing host to South Dakota State at the Devaney Center Natatorium Saturday at 11:30 a.m. 

Nebraska will be led by returning All-Americans Autumn Haebig and Audrey Coffey in the pool along with All-American Sara Troyer in the diving well. Haebig made history last season by becoming Nebraska’s first Big Ten Champion with her victory in the 200-yard freestyle at the conference meet in a school-record time of 1:44.39. She went on to claim NCAA All-America honors in the event with her ninth-place finish at the 2021 NCAA Championships. She added All-America accolades with a 14th-place finish in the 500 free. The fifth-year senior from Grafton, Wis., was also a CSCAA All-American in the 200 free as a junior in 2020.

Coffey, a fellow senior captain from Naperville, Ill., just missed All-America honors of her own in the 1,650 free at the NCAA Championships last season. Nebraska’s school-record holder in the event (16:14.19), Coffey captured CSCAA All-America recognition in the 1,650 in 2020.

Nebraska’s most accomplished returning diver, two-time CSCAA All-American Sara Troyer will take aim at her first NCAA All-America honors this season. The senior from Goshen, Ind., earned a bronze medal on the one-meter board at the 2021 Big Ten Championships. Troyer qualified on the one and three-meter boards at both the 2020 and 2021 NCAA Championships.

In addition to Nebraska’s returning All-Americans, the Huskers will bring their deepest and most talented swim team in Coach Pablo Morales‘ 21 seasons in Lincoln to the 2021-22 campaign.

Maggie Berning could be another key returning swimmer for the Huskers. The senior from Kettering, Ohio, finished 15th in the 200 butterfly at the 2021 Big Ten Championships while adding a 21st-place finish in the 500 free.

Senior Shannon Stott added a top-20 Big Ten finish in the 200 fly, taking 18th in 2021. The second-year Husker from St. Albans, Great Britain, also competed in the 200 and 500 freestyles. The East Carolina transfer contributed to Nebraska’s 400 and 800 free relay teams last year at the conference meet.

Fellow 2020-21 transfer Madesyn Ronquillio pitched in a pair of top-24 conference finishes last season for the Big Red. The senior from Tracy, Calif., who spent her first two seasons at Boise State, took 23rd in the 200 backstroke and 24th in the 100 back, while also swimming a leg in the 400 medley relay.

Senior Katelyn Kilpatrick (Ocala, Fla.) added a top-24 finish for the Big Red last season at the Big Ten meet, taking 22nd in the 1,650 free. She added 21st-place efforts in the event in both 2019 and 2020.

Nebraska’s strong distance freestyle corps will be bolstered by the return of fifth-year senior Rachel Powers. The graduate student from Sun Prairie, Wis., took a redshirt season in 2020-21. She finished 15th in the 1,650 free at the 2020 Big Ten Championships.

Berkeley Livingston and Kimberly Lanaghen lead Nebraska’s junior class. Livingston, a Lincoln Southwest High School graduate, finished 20th in the 400 IM at the 2021 Big Ten meet. Lanaghen (Boulder, Colo.) added a 20th-place finish in the 500 freestyle at the 2021 Big Ten Championships.

Nebraska’s group of juniors is strengthened by the return of Kaitlyn Barth, who posted NU’s top time in the 100-yard butterfly (54.18) on the final day of the Big Ten Championships.

A pair of 2020-21 freshmen also made impacts at the conference level last season. Ella Stein (Hudson, Wis.) was NU’s top breaststroker, taking 15th in the 200 and 23rd in the 100 at the Big Ten Championships. She also swam legs on the 200 and 400 medley relay teams. Lexi Kucera (Hutchinson, Minn.) finished 23rd in the 100 free at the Big Ten meet and just missed the C-Finals in the 100 fly.

Two other sophomores return after posting Nebraska’s top times of the season in individual events. Caitlin Cairns (Colorado Springs, Colo.) posted NU’s top time in the 50 free (23.47), followed by Kucera (23.49) and Gabby Donahue (23.55). Donahue also posted NU’s top time in the 200 IM (2:02.05).

The Huskers add a talented class of 2021-22 freshmen who could be ready to make an impact.

Milica Opacic, a true freshman from Novi Sad, Serbia, could propel Nebraska forward in the freestyle and butterfly events. The No. 156 recruit by SwimCloud in 2020, Opacic delayed her enrollment because of the pandemic. At the 2020 Serbian Long Course Junior Championships in Belgrade in December, she won three silver medals in the 50-meter fly, 100-meter fly and 100 freestyle. In March 2021, she raced to career-best times in the 100-meter free (57.82) and the 100 fly (1:00.82). Her time in the 100-meter fly is faster than Nebraska’s long-course school record set by Taryn Collura (1:00.98) in 2016.

Beatriz Padron brings more international experience as a competitor in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Padron was the lone female swimmer to represent Costa Rica in the Olympics, competing in the 200-meter freestyle. She finished 25th overall (career-best 2:04.56).

JoJo Randby supplies homegrown talent to the Cornhuskers. Randby was the No. 1 recruit in Nebraska in the class of 2021 after winning nine state titles and leading Omaha Marian to back-to-back state team championships in 2020 and 2021. A 10-time NISCA All-American, Randby was ranked as one of the top 150 recruits in the nation by CollegeSwimming.com.

Italian Ilaria Murzilli brings more punch to the freshman class. She was ranked as the No. 86 recruit in the world by CollegeSwimming.com and the No. 26 international recruit. Murzilli showed her talent as a distance freestyler by taking second individually at the 2021 CSCAA Open Water National Championship to lead Nebraska to the team title on Sept. 17. Young breaststrokers Sydney McCracken (Kennett Square, Pa.) and Maia Hall (Whitby, England) along with Madison Lloyd (Kingwood, Texas) round out Nebraska’s freshman class.

A final newcomer to Nebraska’s roster, Emily Haimes (London, England) joins the Huskers as a junior transfer in 2021-22. Haimes was a two-time first-team All-Big 12 performer at West Virginia, taking third in the 100 butterfly (54.13, 2021) and fourth in the 50 free (22.98, 2020) at the conference meet. 

The meet with the Jackrabbits has become nearly an annual non-conference tradition for the Huskers, dating back to the 2005-06 season. The teams did not meet last season because of the change to competitive schedules caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Saturday’s meet with the Jacks will mark the 15th time in the past 17 seasons the two squads have gone head-to-head. Nebraska is unbeaten in the previous 14 meetings, including 7-0 at the Devaney Natatorium.

The last time the schools met, the Huskers raced to a 154.5-88 win over the Jacks in Brookings (Oct. 11, 2019). In the last dual in Lincoln, the Big Red cruised to a 156-63 win (Sept. 28-29, 2018).

Nebraska vs. South Dakota State Dual History 

(Nebraska Leads Series 14-0)

Nebraska 154.5, @SDSU 88 (10/11/19)    

Nebraska 156, SDSU 63 (9/28-29/18)    

Nebraska 212, @SDSU 88 (10/14/16)    

Nebraska 180, SDSU 109 (10/31/15)

Nebraska 155, @SDSU 139 (11/1/14)

Nebraska 232, SDSU 68 (11/15/13)

Nebraska 177, @SDSU 106 (11/9/12)

Nebraska 193, SDSU 99 (10/22/11)

Nebraska 175, @SDSU 91 (11/20/10)

Nebraska 182, SDSU 110 (12/12/09)

Nebraska 176, @SDSU 119 (12/12/08)

Nebraska 167, SDSU 108 (10/20/07)

Nebraska 181, @SDSU 102 (12/2/06)

Nebraska 87, SDSU 23 (11/5/05)

Saturday’s Order of Events

200 Medley Relay

1,000 Freestyle

200 Freestyle

50 Freestyle

200 IM

1-Meter Diving

100 Butterfly

100 Freestyle

100 Backstroke

500 Freestyle

3-Meter Diving

100 Breaststroke

200 Freestyle Relay