Lilly King claims a Big Ten Championship, and an American Record

After winning a Gold Medal, and taking the nation by storm with one single finger wag, it’s hard to imagine that there is much left for Lilly King to accomplish. Quite simply, it’s rather difficult to improve once you have already reached the pinnacle of your sport. With that said, Lilly King doesn’t tend to shy away from difficulty.

Tonight, Lilly King claimed the first American record of the 2017 collegiate postseason by finishing the 100 meter breaststroke in 56.30 seconds. With that time, King surpassed her own previous record by more than half a second.

To no surprise, King also broke the NCAA, Big Ten, Big Ten meet, school and pool record for the 100 meter breaststroke.

In the process of breaking these records, King also won a Big Ten Championship by finishing 2.6 seconds faster than Minnesota’s Lindsey Horejsi.

Last year, King became the first swimmer to finish the 100 meter in under 57 seconds. Now she looks to continue her progress towards becoming the first under 56 seconds.

King wasn’t the only Hoosier competing tonight as Indiana qualified for 20 different Big Ten Championship Finals.

Marie Chamberlain won the C Final of the 100 backstroke with a NCAA B cut time of 54.11, and Holly Spears won the C Final of the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:48.02.

Moving into the final day of the Big Ten Championships, Indiana is currently in 2nd place with a score of 791. This leaves the Hoosiers 14.5 points behind Michigan.