Last weekend, after several months of regular-season dual meets, the real pressure was finally on. From Wednesday to Saturday, USC women’s swim and dive competed in the first of a one-two punch of season punctuation marks, taking their talents to the Big Ten Conference Championships in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 

Alongside the NCAA Championships in late March, the Big Ten Championships represent crunch time for the No. 12 Trojans (7-3, 1-1 Big Ten) as the end of their season draws nearer and USC competes against the nation’s greatest collegiate athletes.

And, against the very best of the Big Ten, the Trojans thrived, holding their own for multiple top-10 finishes and season-bests. For the second year in a row — in as many Big Ten Championships — the Trojans placed fifth out of 14 teams, racking up 768 points across the four-day meet.

USC made a fair showing in the meet’s relays, sporting a pair of eighth-place finishes in the 200 medley and freestyle relays, featuring breakneck splits from junior Lindsay Barnes and graduate student Nicole Maier, respectively. Though the Trojans struggled in the 400 freestyle relay, they still managed to snag 11th after out-touching the Penn State (3-4) A-team. 

However, USC has consistently done its best work this season when given more distance, and the 400 medley offered the Trojans ample time to find their way into sixth place. In what would likely be its strongest event if it were regularly scheduled in dual meets due to the Trojans’ prowess in longer freestyle events, USC placed fourth in the 800 freestyle relay while playing to the strengths of some of its most consistent swimmers, including Maier, senior Justina Kozan, senior Claire Tuggle and freshman Dora Molnar. 

Beyond the relays, freestyle set the tone for the best of the Trojans throughout the meet. Freshman Alisee Pisane was USC’s sole representative in the mile, one of her most consistent individual events, and dropped four seconds from her prior 16:31.40 time to take 11th place in the timed finals.

Maier and Tuggle kept each other company in the longer freestyle events, keeping their distance domination rolling across the meet. In the 200 prelims and finals, Maier finished in fourth while Tuggle followed suit in seventh. 

Both swimmers had something to prove in the 500 after making their own waves in the event last year, with top-10 finishes for the two swimmers; the pair held their own in the final heat, with Kozan finishing in fifth after a near two-second drop from her 4:41.16 entry time and Tuggle in eighth.

Maier continued her freestyle run with a staggering fourth-place finish in the 100 freestyle after a tiny drop, though the 50 free was the truest test of her resolve. In the classic blink-and-you’ll-miss-it style of the 50, the event was so tight that Maier tied with Ohio State freshman Carrie Furbee down to a hundredth of a second — not once, but twice — for the pair to finish in sixth. 

The breaststroke was another massive highlight for the Trojans: Freshman Bella Brito had already impressed in the 100 prelims by placing fourth as a first-year, with senior Ashley McMillan at sixth, but she topped her performance with a third-place finals finish as the youngest in the top three; both Trojans earned season-best times. 

The 200, however, was McMillan’s time to shine. Brito placed fifth in both the prelims and the finals, but McMillan stuck it out for third place in both rounds, dropping a second off her entry time.

Though the Trojans missed junior Minna Abraham’s mastery of the 100 butterfly, after she announced Feb. 16 that she’d be sitting out for the Big Ten Championships, USC made do with incredible performances in the remainder of the medley.

Freshman Sage Miller held her own in the 200 fly as the only Trojan to break the top eight in a butterfly event, jumping to sixth place in her finals swim after dropping almost a second. 

After performing consistently in backstroke events throughout the season, Barnes finally got her moment in the sun in the 200. Both Molnar and Barnes qualified for the final heat at fourth and eighth, respectively, but Molnar placed fifth while Barnes took fourth in the finals.

In the 200 individual medley, McMillan and Kozan occupied third and fourth place for the prelims, respectively, though McMillan came in at fifth while Kozan took seventh in the finals. Kozan one-upped her sixth place in the 400 IM prelim heat with a three-second drop that landed her fourth place in the A-final. 

The divers performed well, but sophomore Kate Miller was USC’s star diver of the meet. In the 3-meter, Miller and sophomore Alena Lotterer kept the Trojans in the conversation with 11th- and 23rd-place finishes, with Miller also representing USC in the 1-meter B-final at 10th place. In the platform event, freshman Morgan Burns improved her prelim score to finish in 31st, while Miller achieved her best placement yet at fourth place.

After the substantial success of the Big Ten Championships, 15 of USC’s women will compete to extend their momentum to the NCAA meets: from March 9 to 11 in Flagstaff, Arizona, for the divers and March 18 to 21 in Atlanta, Georgia, for the swimmers.