The NCAAs came to a close for Iowa when senior Grant Betulius along with juniors Roman Trussov and Addison Boschult competed in their events on March 28 in the Campus Recreation & Wellness Center.

Neither Betulius nor Trussov qualified for the evening finals after disappointing performances in the preliminaries. Boschult didn’t make the finals, either.

Betulius swam in the 200 backstroke, finishing with a time of 1:44.97 and placing 41st; Trussov swam to a time of 1:55.04 in the 200 breaststroke and placed 28th. 

“It’s a hard way to go out; I know I had higher expectations for myself over the whole weekend but moving forward,” Betulius said. “I don’t think my career is over, so it makes it a little bit easier, but once again, it’s hard not to score any points for the team.”

While Betulius’ last event may have left him with a bitter taste in his mouth, Trussov is looking at the NCAA meet as a positive experience overall and something to build on for the future.

“Personally, I’m happy with my swim. This was my second-best time, I believe,” he said. “Of course, you want to be in the finals, and I didn’t make it, but overall, my times this year were much faster than the previous two years I’ve been here.”

For Boschult, there was a positive feeling for the diver after the conclusion of the meet.

Boschult placed 10th in the platform diving event after narrowly missing a spot as one of the top-eight finalists. He scored a 378.5 and finished 13th in the preliminary rounds but rebounded in the consolation finals, scoring a 386.50 — just behind Stanford’s Olympian diver Kristian Ipsen.

“It feels really good to score points for the team, but just the experience was awesome,” Boschult said.  “I wish I could be in the final, and I feel that I have the ability to be there. That’s kind of rough, but I guess I can use that as motivation for next year.” 

Diving coach Todd Waikel also believes Boschult should have made it into the championship round, but he is still positive that the team is heading in the right direction. 

“The first thing he said to me after the contest was that he should be diving tonight, and he’s right,” Waikel said. “He should be, he does have more in him, and he knows that he did leave some points on the table, and I think that was a little bit disappointing for him.

“But you know, when it’s all said and done, I told him take the emotion out of it, and let’s learn from it.”

Boschult only started diving off the towers his freshman year and came to the team as a walk-on. He was also Waikel’s first diver as Iowa’s diving coach.

Despite the lack of team scoring, the coaching staff believes that the program is moving up and named Betulius as huge part of the team’s success. 

“I think we were going in planning to score some points, but we weren’t going to win any titles, and that’s hard to as an athlete or as a competitor,” head coach Marc Long said. “You don’t play a game trying to lose, and Grant’s huge part of even getting us in this position now. He’s definitely leaving in a better place since he came both physically and attitude-wise.”

Follow @RodEngblom for news, updates and analysis of the Iowa men’s swimming and diving team.