Quality, not quantity, was the case for the NIU women’s swimming team’s efforts at the Midwest Independent Regional Championships Thursday through Saturday.

The final standings have Illinois State edging host Southern Illinois by a 782-779 margin for first-place in the team race. And then Western Illinois is third at 511, with NIU fourth at 447.

But behind those numbers, Huskies’ coach Mike Burt saw a lot of reason to smile. Specifically, three NIU records and two All-Midwest honors claimed by NIU. Both of which came on the final day of competition.

Stacey Hartzer touched first in the grueling 1,650-yard freestyle with a 17:22.75 effort while Kristin Scholz claimed the blue ribbon in the 200-yard backstroke with her 2:06.99 performance.

“For what we had in terms of healthy people, we did a really good job,” Burt said. “Almost everyone had a season best time. And in almost every instance, we swam faster in the evening finals than we did in the morning prelims. I’m very happy and proud to end my coaching career with these people. We didn’t have a lot of people to give us highlights, but the ones we got were good.”

In addition to Hartzer’s triumph in the 1,650, which erased the 17:25.86 standard she set at last year’s regional meet, she also took second place in the 400-yard individual medley (4:39.08) plus the 500-yard freestyle (5:05.09). In addition to those three major efforts, the NIU senior swam on two fourth-place Huskie relay units: the 400-yard freestyle squad and the 800-yard freestyle quartet.

Along with Scholz’s 200-yard backstroke mark (2:06.99), which replaced the 2:07.95 standard set by Laura Webster at the 1988 regional meet, she took second in the 100-yard backstroke (1:00.26).

NIU’s other record belonged to Pam Jackson, whose :52.75 lead-off leg for the 400-yard freestyle relay erases the NIU 100-yard standard of :52.84 turned in by Beth Mendyke at the 1988 regional meet. In addition to swimming on that relay, Jackson was third in the 50-yard freestyle (:24.43) and fourth in both the 100-yard butterfly (:59.36) and the 100-yard freestyle (:52.96).

Jenny Horoky also spearheaded the point contributions made by the Huskies’ divers as she placed sixth in one-meter (303.40) and seventh in three-meter (360.75) competition. Burt also singled out Liza Linde for “exceeding expectations and goals. She may not have scored a lot of points, but she really improved throughout the year.”