By Carter Melrose
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Going into the Big Ten Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships, the
three Iowa swimmers to watch were sophomores Kenneth Mende and Jack
Smith and junior Jerzy Twarowski, all of whom qualified for the 2016
NCAA Championships last season. It was seen as a toss-up which one of
these swimmers would finish the highest in their events.

This year, the hero was Mende in the 200 backstroke where, he improvedupon his lifetime best by moer than three seconds.

In the preliminary of this event, Mende not only raced to a lifetime
best but also tied the Iowa school record — this coming in an event
that his times had him as 12th-best among the field. He finished third
in the preliminary and moved onto the A-finals on Feb. 25.

In the finals, Mende came back down to earth and raced just fast
enough to get seventh place.

In the 100 backstroke Mende had a tougher time, only having the juice
to essentially match his yearly best time. This resulted in a
13th-place finish.

The second hero of the week had to be Twarowski, who added 23 points
for Iowa in the 100 butterfly. Coming off a huge couple of races to
seize seventh, Twarowski completed a huge upset considering the talent
in the event. This in an event that breaking the top 10 would have
been an accomplishment.

Smith, on the other hand, had a mixed bag of performances throughout
the tourney. He battled for 11th in the 50 freestyle, an overachieving
display. He also finished sixth along with freshmen William Scott,
Joseph Myhre, and senior Joseph Halsmer in the 200-freestyle relay.
Last, in the 100 freestyle, Smith missed the A-finals, which was a
large expectation for himself.

“My highest goal is NCAAs, but my other goal is top eight in the 100
freestyle,” Smith said.

Though not succeeding in his goal of top eight in the Big Ten, Smith’s
B-final performance was a very necessary one. Smith, in that race,
swam the fastest time in Iowa school history.

On the diving side of the Big Tens, the story was sophomore Will
Brenner. Last year at the Big Tens, Brenner narrowly missed the
A-finals, which still picks at him. During the preliminaries of men’s
1-meter diving, Brenner’s fate was similar; he again narrowly missed
the A-finals and took 10th place overall.

The Hawkeyes finished the Big Ten meet as the eighth-best team with
424 points; Indiana beat defending champion Michigan by more than 100
points to take the Big Ten title.