Hawkeye swimming dominates in final dual meet
The Iowa swimming and diving teams both finished the regular season with sweeps of Northern Iowa and Western Illinois.
The Iowa swimming and diving teams sing the Iowa fight song after a swim meet against the University of Northern Iowa and Western Illinois University on Friday, Feb. 1.
February 3, 2019
The Hawkeye swimming and diving teams concluded their final regular season dual with dominating performances, leading to sweeps against Western Illinois and Northern Iowa.
The Iowa men swam lights out, taking all 12 events to beat Western Illinois, 151-56. The Hawkeye women posted two victories, defeating Western Illinois (172-49) and Northern Iowa (137-86).
These two victories helped the women finish with an even dual record of 6-6, while the Iowa men finished 6-2.
What helped lead the Hawkeyes to victory was the impressive number of first-place finishes they had.
The women started the meet hot with a 1-2 sweep in the 200-medley. Sophomores Kelsey Drake, Sage Ohlensehlen, Sarah Schemmel, and junior Samantha Sauer finished first in 1:44.26, and were followed closely behind by sophomores Morgan Grout, Lexi Horner, junior Amy Lenderink, and senior Natalie McGovern with a finishing time of 1:48.70.
The men also swept the 200-medley with the top four spots. They finished very closely with times of 1:30.20, 1:31.72, 1:33.17, and 1:33.78.
The golds continued to come as in the next event, the women’s 200-free, junior Allyssa Fluit (1:49.85) and freshman Lauren McDougall (1:50.11) finished first and second.
The men kept the sweeping going in their 200-free, as sophomore Thomas Pederson (1:38.00), redshirt freshman Aleksey Tarasenko (1:39.89), freshman Jackson Allmon (1:40.87), senior Ben Collin (1:43.46) finished in the top four spots.
The men’s sprints continued to swim fast, as they also swept the top four sports in the 50-free. Leading the pack with a time of 20.49 was junior Steve Fiolic, who was closely followed by junior Sam Dumford (20.82), senior Matt Kamin (20.92), and junior Michael Tenney (21.01).
The Iowa men also showed dominance finishing 1-2-3 in the 100 individual medley. Freshman Anze Fers Erzen grabbed the gold in 50.12 and teammates Daniel Swanepoel and Dolan Craine were right behind with times of 51.34 and 53.33.
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The Hawkeye women, Drake (54,88), Schemmel (56.95), and Grout (58.58), came back firing in the 100-fly sweeping another event earning the top three spots. The men followed the women’s trend as they took the top four spots in the 100-fly. Finishing first was sophomore Jackson Kuhlers (49.37), and shortly behind was freshman Matjaz Rozman (49.65), Dumford (49.89), and Tarasenko (50.05).
The gold medals kept coming for both teams in the 100-free. In the women’s race, Fluit finished first with a time of 50.66, followed by McDougall, who came in second in 51.67. On the men’s side, the Hawkeyes finished with the final sweep of the night in swimming with junior Will Scott (44.75) in first, freshman Mateusz Arndt (45.60) in second, Kamin (45.80) in third, and redshirt senior Kenneth Mende (46.14) in fourth.
Iowa swimming and diving team members come together before a swim meet against the University of Northern Iowa and Western Illinois University on Friday, Feb. 1, 2019.
The victories did not stop coming, though. In the men’s 100-back, Anze Fers Erzen finished first with a time of 50.58. In the women’s 500-free, Fluit (4:59.47) and junior Hannah Burvill (5:06.63) finished with a 1-2 punch, earning gold and silver. The men also finished first and second in the 500-free, as Pederson (4:33.03) earned first, followed by sophomore Tom Schab (4:39.90).
The final individual victory in swimming came from freshman Caleb Babb in the 100-breast with a finishing time of 55.68.
In the final event of the day, both Hawkeyes’ 200-free relay teams finished with wins, with the women touching 1:35.08 and the men clocking in at 1:20.59.
Diving took home all the gold. The Iowa women dominated the 3-meter springboards, sweeping the podium with career-best scores from sophomore Jayah Mathews (380.20), freshman Sam Tamborski (355.05), and senior Jacintha Thomas (310.20), finishing 1-2-3. Mathews also grabbed a win in the 1-meter with a score of 324.70.
On the men’s side of diving, senior Will Brenner dominated the boards with two first-place finishes, winning the 1-meter with a score of 349.55 and a career-best score of 394.30 off the 3-meter.
Next for the Hawkeyes, the women will start championship season Feb. 20 at the Big Ten Championships in Bloomington, Indiana, while the men will host the Big Ten Championships from Feb. 27-March 2.
