This wasn"t a typical year for the Michigan women"s swimming and diving team.

It was quite apparent when, after the third day of the Big Ten Championships (Feb. 20-23), the Wolverines found themselves in fourth place, 174 points behind then-first place Indiana and with just two medalists going into the final day of competition.

Though the Wolverines ended up in fifth behind Penn State, Indiana, Wisconsin and Northwestern far from their traditional spot of first, which they had been in 13 of the past 16 years Michigan did provide some memorable finishes to leave a positive impression on the championship meet.

Sophomore Annie Weilbacher, a medallist in the 200-yard medley relay and the 100 butterfly in the first three days, earned second and third place honors last Saturday in the 400 freestyle relay and 100 freestyle.

"Of course I always wish I could do better, but that"s what keeps you in the sport," Weilbacher said. "If you ever become completely content, you"re not really going to go anywhere. I"m happy with the way things went and I"m using (the meet) as, "I"m here, now where do I move forward." There"s still things I want to do. And as a team I think there"s a lot more to do."

As a team this meet, Michigan, concentrated on the efforts of individuals in hopes of getting some final qualifiers into the NCAA Championships (Mar. 21-23). The Wolverines fell short, though, as no names were added to the four already going to NCAAs Weilbacher, Lindsay Carlberg, Kelli Stein and Amy McCullough.

There were hopes that last-year"s All-American, Emily-Clare Fenn, would qualify in the 1,650-yard freestyle the event she finished sixth in at NCAAs last season. But Fenn couldn"t join fellow miler McCullough, who qualified last month, as her time of 16:49.26 wasn"t near the automatic qualifying time of 16:29.51.

"Her tempo dropped off," Michigan coach Jim Richardson said. "Emily"s had a different winter this season. It didn"t come as easy as last year, but I think in part it was because we worked a lot harder out of the pool this year. And it"s possible her muscles haven"t fully recovered from a lot of the out-of-the-pool work we"ve done. She"s obviously a great swimmer, she"ll come back and perform well. I think she"ll be back to form this summer."

Michigan"s only other medallist in the meet was McCullough in the 1,650-yard freestyle with a time of 16:27.76 just behind Wisconsin"s Carly Piper and Indiana"s Sarah Fiden.

Piper, the Big Ten Freshman of the Year, was also the Big Ten Swimmer of the Meet with wins in the 500-yard freestyle, 200 free and was a part of the winning 800 freestyle relay.

Indiana"s Susan Woessner was named the Big Ten"s Swimmer of the Year and earned pool, meet and conference records in the 100-yard backstroke with her time of 53.59.

The meet was also the final time that the Michigan seniors would compete in Canham Natatorium. Carlberg, the only point scorer in the senior class, was fourth in the 100-yard backstroke and seventh in the 200 backstroke.

Senior co-captain Andrea Kurrle was an alternate for the finals in the 200-yard breaststroke with her time of 2:20.67 and was 19th in the preliminary round of the 100 breaststroke. Career-bests were posted by senior Kathleen Gilbert in the prelims of the 200 breaststroke, 200 and 100 freestyles. Diver Lindsey McElroy had two top-25 finishes in the one- and three-meter competitions.

"This last month, I"ve been trying not to think about (being done), because I"ve been swimming since I was four," Carlberg said.

"I didn"t know how I was going to feel about having (the Big Ten Championships) at home. (But) it"s been a lot of fun with all the parents and their enthusiasm."

Michigan finished the season with a 3-2 record in the Big Ten, 3-5 overall. The team placed in the top three at the Florida Relays and Georgia Invitational.

The divers have NCAA Zones in West Lafayette on Mar. 15 and the NCAA Championships are in Austin, Texas.