The Iowa men’s and women’s swimming and diving team is prepared for a friendly, albeit no less intense, competition.
The Hawkeyes will hold their annual Black and Gold intrasquad meet at the Campus Wellness & Recreation Center at 7 p.m. today. The meet offers a warm-up for the men and women’s grueling Big Ten schedule, while at the same time giving the team a chance to try to best themselves.
“This is a fun event for us,” head coach Marc Long said. “Typically, we kick off our season with it, and it’s always pretty fun. The seniors get to draft their teams and put the lines together, and we as coaches act as consultants, which provides an element of fun.”
The seniors are split into two “teams,” a Black Team and a Gold Team, who then go through the entire roster and select which teammates they want to compete for them in a draft, much like the drafts that several pro sports have adopted for their all-star games.
Even though the intrasquad scrimmage is designed to be a lighthearted affair, both the team and Long recognize that while it may not count on the schedule, any chance the Hawkeyes get to swim competitively is a valuable training tool.
“Like I said, we usually open the season with this meet, but since we already started, we can use it as a way to prepare for Michigan State next week,” Long said. “It’s a competitive team, and the reality is that they love to race.”
Freshman Nick Zito, who was recently named the Big Ten Freshman of the Week, is confident he can help lead his team to victory even though this is his first intrasquad scrimmage.
“I’m really, really excited about this meet,” he said. “I’ve really been looking forward to it since I’ve been here. I get to race all the guys on the team, and I think that maybe I can even improve upon my times from the Michigan meet.”
On the other side of the spectrum, senior Andrew Marciniak will swim in his final intrasquad scrimmage and will try to help lift a team that he and his fellow seniors drafted.
He also sees the friendly competition as a way the Hawks can shave seconds off of their times.
“I think we can hope to accomplish some really solid times,” Marciniak said. “I really think we could see some NCAA cuts, and for our second meet, that would be astounding, because then we could go into to December and pick up some actual NCAA qualifying times.”
Junior Becky Stoughton had one of the best performances with wins in the 1,000 free, 500-free, and the 200 individual medley in the last intrasquad. Senior Lindsay Seemann had wins in the 200 free and 100 back. She was also part of the 200-meter relay team that finished first in the meet.
This year also features five freshmen who will try to make immediate impacts. Emma Sougstad, one of those freshman, has began to build herself a legacy; she was named Big Ten Freshman of the Week after a very successful outing in Michigan on Oct. 1.
Long has a good feeling about this year’s team, with strong swimmers all around.
“This year’s swimming and diving team is an exciting mix of experienced upperclassmen and a strong, developing group of freshmen and sophomores,” he said.
