By Carter Melrose
In front of a nearly packed house in the Campus Recreation & Wellness Center, the regular-season finale for the Iowa men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams went according to plan.
“We knew that we were going to win,” sophomore Jack Smith said after the meet against Western Illinois on Feb. 3.
The men’s team won handily in a contest that Iowa head coach Marc Long described as serious but also fun. The men’s team won, 145-58, giving the team a bit of confidence going into the Big Ten Championships on Feb. 22.
In Smith’s first race, the 200 freestyle, he beat the closest Western Illinois swimmer by more than 6 seconds. The trend continued as the men’s team won nine of 10 races. The only loss of the night came in the 200-freestyle relay.
Freshman Sam Dumford raced a 20.0 in his leg of the 200-freestyle relay, which pleased all of his teammates.
“We were pretty happy about that,” Smith said.
On the women’s side, the domination continued. The women, however, had two opponents in Western Illinois and Northern Iowa. They beat Western Illinois, 161-49, and UNI, 147-73.
Senior Emma Sougstad won all three of her events.
“I love to swim meets like this, because you turn off upstairs and just do what you have been practicing,” she said. The women’s team only lost two of 12 events all night. Those losses came in the 100 freestyle and 200 freestyle relay. In both races, Long placed swimmers who weren’t necessarily in their comfort zone.
The lead that Iowa built allowed both the men and women to have a little fun with the last event. They both chose to do a 200-freestyle relay divided into class year.
In the women’s relay, the juniors took first, followed by the seniors in second. Both the freshman and sophomore teams were disqualified for early exchanges. The decision by the referee was followed by much outrage from many Iowa teammates and fans.
“There is a lot of pride between the classes,” Long said about the relay.
During the men’s relay the excitement was palpable. In a surprise victory, the freshmen edged the seniors.
“[It was] great to see the young kids step up,” Long said.
After both teams took care of business on Feb. 3, all the attention shifted to the impending Big Ten Championships.
“We certainly shoot for this time of the season: championship time.
We want to move up in the Big Ten,” Long said. “We started all the way back in September. I see tremendous development.”
The women’s Big Ten competition will take place in West Lafayette, Indiana, on Feb. 15-18. The men’s competition is in Columbus, Ohio, Feb. 22- 25.