Iowa’s performance at the Big Ten meet was not what the team had hoped for.

Finishing eighth was seen as somewhat of a disappointment for the Hawkeye men, who had higher aspirations.

From a performance standpoint, Iowa head swimming coach Marc Long estimated that the majority of his swimmers set personal bests at the meet, but the team finish is what stands out.

But the Hawkeyes have moved on and are looking ahead to the NCAA championships.

The major team goal is to swim faster at the NCAAs, and the Hawkeyes are pushing themselves in and out of the pool to get where they want to be.

“We got right back in the weight room Monday after Big Tens,” Long said. “We’ve been preparing the men to swim fast and score some points.”

Long and his swimmers said the key to the NCAA championships will be holding the pace from the first half of the race to the second.

The majority of the racing the Hawkeyes will do at the meet will be in 100-yard distances, meaning they will need to hold their speed over the second 50 of their races.

Freshman Jerzy Twarowski said that despite race pace work this week, that speed over the second 50 will come from the full season of training.

“The most important thing right now is holding speed on the second 50,” he said.

Twarowski will swim the 50- and 100-butterfly legs on the 200- and 400-medley relays.

That second half speed will be particularly important for the Hawkeyes on the 400 medley, arguably their best event, in which the Hawkeyes are seeded 17th on the official NCAA championship sheets, released Wednesday.

Joining the relays at the championships are senior Grant Betulius in the 100 and 200 backstrokes and junior Roman Trussov in the 100 and 200 breaststrokes.

For Trussov, the most important thing is maintaining that speed on the second half of the races.

“It’ll come from the whole year,” he said.

He noted that the high-intensity, low-rest workouts the Hawkeyes have been doing in the pool will help with the racing, but the speed will come from work done in the earlier part of the season.

The low-rest, high-intensity training helps practice feel like a race, and Trussov thinks it will benefit the Hawkeyes at the NCAAs.

“I think we have been doing a better job than last year, than my freshman year,” He said. “I think we will be faster than at Big Tens.”

Long said the Hawkeyes are using a similar training plan to what they did two years ago, where the Hawkeyes finished 32nd. The hope is that experience will help them with the run-up to the NCAAs.

“I think overall, tapering was pretty good,” Trussov said. “Race stuff will help. That’s what we’re doing right now. I think we’ll be faster because of that.”

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