Men’s swimmers slip at Big Tens

The Iowa men’s swimming and diving team slipped in the standings at the Big Ten Championships on Thursday, falling from fourth to seventh place.

The Hawkeyes will enter competition this morning with 208 points, trailing leader Michigan by 288 team points.

Three Iowa swimmers had career-best marks in the 50 freestyle at the meet, all placing in the top 25 of the event.

Senior Jackson Allen was the top Hawkeye finisher in the event, placing 17th in 19.99. Freshman Jack Smith was next, finishing 21st in 20.12. Senior Charles Holliday was 24th for Iowa in 20.25, but he swam a 19.97 in prelims, good enough for eighth in school history.

The Hawkeyes failed to crack the top 10 in the diving well Thursday night. Freshman Will Brenner was just outside of the top 10 in the 1 meter, finishing in 11th place with a score of 322.75. Senior Brandis Heffner was 16th with a score of 283.75.

Four Iowa swimmers competed in the 500 freestyle, but all four swimmers failed to make finals. Sophomore Chris Dawson was the fastest Hawkeye, touching the wall in 4:28.29. Sophomore Thomas Rathbun was next, finishing in 4:29.11, followed by junior Kyle Gannon in 4:29.40 and sophomore Logan Samuelson in 4:31.58.

The story was the same in the 200 individual medley, with all three Hawkeye swimmers failing to make finals.

Redshirt freshman Kenneth Mende was Iowa’s top-finisher in 1:49.12, followed by senior Matt Boyd in 1:50.10, and senior Andrew Parker in 1:54.27.

The night ended on a high note for Iowa, with the 400-medley relay team of senior Roman Trussov, sophomore Jerzy Twarowski, Mende, and Smith breaking a school record and placing third in the event. The quartet’s time of 3:07.83 was also an NCAA “A” qualifying time.

— Blake Dowson