Iowa swimming shows improvement heading into final day of Big Tens
The Hawkeyes had a solid outing in the second-to-last day of the Big Ten Championships.
Iowa swimmer Kelsey Drake swims the 100m butterfly during a swim meet against the University of Northern Iowa and Western Illinois University on Friday, Feb. 1, 2019.
February 22, 2019
Iowa swimming and diving wrapped up Day 3 of the women’s Big Ten Championships with better all-around performances from everyone on the team.
Starting off with diving, the Hawkeye divers took on the 3-meter springboard and three athletes finished in the top 15 in the preliminaries, earning them a spot in the finals. Sophomore Jayah Mathews earned an “A” final spot after finishing sixth in the prelims. she would outdo that performance, scoring 353.10 points in the finals to finish fourth overall.
Freshman Sam Tamborski finished just outside the “A” mark, placing ninth in the prelims, earning her the top spot in the “B” finals. Junior Thelma Strandberg was not far behind, also earning a spot in the “B” finals with a 13th-place finish in prelims. In the “B” final, Tamborski earned a 10th-place finish with a score of 332.35 and Strandberg ended up in 15th with a score of 278.75.
In the first race of the day, sophomore Kelsey Drake and senior Kelly McNamara both swam to a spot in the “B” finals in the 100 fly where they earned 14th and 15th, respectively. They would end up finishing in the same spots in the final with McNamara (54.02) just trailing Drake (53.81).
The next Hawkeye swimmers to earn a spot in the finals were in the 200 free, with junior Hannah Burvill (1:45.93) earning an “A” final spot at seventh place and junior Allyssa Fluit (1:46.67) finishing at 10th place earned a spot in the “B” final. Burvill swam .89 seconds faster in the final with a time of 1:45.04 to finish in fifth, while Fluit swam a time of 1:47.07, earning a 13th-place finish.
To finish Day 3, the 200-free relay team of Burvill, sophomore Sarah Schemmel, McNamara, and Drake swam to a time of 1:32.11 in the finals, taking home 10th place. Coming into the championships, the Iowa women were ranked at No. 6 in the race, but fell a minute shy of their seed time.
At the end of Day 3, the Hawkeye women are sitting at No. 8 in the point standings with 315.5.
The events competing on the final of day of competition are the 1650 free, 200 back, 100 free, 200 breast, 200 fly, platform diving, and the 400-free relay.