In dominating fashion, Iowa swam past the competition in its home-opener.

After downing Michigan State and Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Oct. 23, the Iowa men’s swimming and diving team went on to beat Missouri State, 188.5-109.5, on Oct. 24.

With its first double-dual meet of the season and little time to rest for Missouri State following nearly four hours of competition the previous day, the early Hawks definitely got the worm at the Field House.

“Last night was a long meet,” Iowa head coach Marc Long said. “Those double-duals in a facility like this take a long time, and they stepped up.

“That’s why we did this back-to-back. Learning how to prepare to race in a long meet like last night against quality opponents and waking up for a real tough Missouri State team. And sometimes not getting the warm down you’re used to and the sleep you’re used to … We have a lot of work to do, but we saw some positives.”

Pacing the Hawkeyes in their winning ways were senior diver Frank Van Dijkhuizen and sophomore swimmer Paul Gordon.

Van Dijkhuizen won the 1-meter dive with a score of 331.95.

Gordon won three individual events, the 100 butterfly (49.60), 200 freestyle (1:41.17), and 100 freestyle (45.43).

He was also involved in the winning 400-freestyle relay (3:04.18) with freshmen Jordan Huff, sophomore Duncan Partridge, and sophomore Ryan Phelan.

“As far as my own personal performance, I was happy with it,” Gordon said. “I achieved my goals. We were able to kind of work as a team to get some of the points we needed. We kind of rolled along with our confidence.”

Gordon said his success during the meet helps keep other teammates at ease, knowing they have the points already needed to win.

With back-to-back meets, Gordon said the team was tired but not down.

“I would say that we are hurting a little worse today than we were yesterday,” he said on Oct. 24. “But our success [on Oct. 23] put us in a really good place mentally for getting up and preparing to race a team we knew was going to be good. We knew what events we would be strong in, and which ones were going to be tough. We just needed to be contending and … we did more than just contend.”

Even though the Hawkeyes won by a wide margin, one event created some controversy.

During the start of the 50 freestyle, a clock malfunction forced the race to stop. Coaches elected to restart the event, and Patridge lost the only race of the meet for Iowa, 21.42-21.47.

“It’s just a mechanical malfunction,” Long said. “The coaches met and just decided to re-swim it. I don’t know. We need a new pool.

“Missouri State had some great races and have some outstanding swimmers. They out-raced us in that event. That’s what I like about restarting it. Just race it and have it out, instead of arguing about times.”

Still trying to gauge how he felt about the situation, Patridge said nothing like that had happened to him before.

“I’m pretty sure all of us were kind of worried about what was going on,” he said. “But when they told us just to get back up and race again, I was ready.

“I was close. I was kind of upset. I got out-touched, but it was close, and it was an experience.”