Lindsay Vrooman won the first two individual events back-t0-back for the Indiana Hoosiers to help set the tone for a pair of wins over the visiting Louisville Cardinals. The Hoosier women cruised to a 175-123 win while the men had a stiffer test, winning 162-138 over a Louisville team that dominated the sprint events.
Women’s Meet
Louisville won both relays on the women’s side, although they got some help from IU with the first one. The Hoosiers won the 200 medley by about a half-second, but anchor Kaitlyn Flederbach jumped on the freestyle leg to disqualify the Indiana team. That let Louisville win in 1:40.75 to take an early lead.
But Vrooman went off in the first two individual races. She won the 1000 free in 10:00.50, leading a 1-2-3 Indiana sweep and touching out teammate Stephanie Marchuk by two tenths. Haley Lips was third.
That entire trio came back in the very next women’s race, with Vrooman winning in 1:49.24 and Lips second in 1:49.59. Cynthia Pammett was third for the second straight IU sweep. Marchuk faded to 6th coming off her near-win in the 1000.
The third event was another Hoosier 1-2-3. Brooklynn Snodgrass went 53.76 to win the 100 back, followed by Allie Day and Justine Ress, and then Bronwyn Pasloski won the 100 breaststroke to put Indiana up convincingly.
But Louisville’s stud Tanja Kylliainen stepped in to end the IU streak, winning her signature 200 fly in 1:57.10 over Indiana freshman Gia Dalesandro.
In the 50 free, Flederbach made up for her relay disqualification by beating Louisville’s other star Kelsi Worrell. Flederback went 23.15 to Worrell’s 23.21.
Kate Hillman scored 313.20 to win 3-meter diving before Worrell and Flederbach rematched in the 100 free. This time Worrell came out on top, going 49.46 and powering away in the back half. Flederbach was second in 50.18.
Pammett, Ress and Day combined to sweep the 200 back, giving IU 1-2-3s in both backstroke events. Pammett was 1:58.69 for the win.
But Gisselle Kohoyda put together a big Louisville win in the 200 breast, going 2:10.94 to easily outmatch Indiana’s Pasloski and shut down the possibility of another sweep.
Vrooman came back to win the 500 free, again engaging in a tight race with a teammate. She went 4:53.25 to beat Lips by .04, and Marchuk was third.
Freshman Gia Dalesandro beat Louisville’s Tanja Kylliainen in the 100 fly 53.68 to 53.81 to put an exclamation point on the day for the home team.
Hillman once again won diving (294.75 on 1-meter) before Dorina Szekeres jumped in to outpace the field in the 400 IM, going 4:17.47.
Louisville snagged the 400 free relay win by combining Worrell and Kylliainen. Worrell led off in 49.98, the best leadoff in the field. Kylliainen was 50.84 swimming third and anchor Breann McDowell went 49.85 to close the door on Indiana, which hung around the whole way and even lead through the middle legs, but couldn’t close things out. Louisville’s 3:21.78 topped Indiana’s 3:22.03.
Men’s Meet
Indiana’s consistency was enough to hold off a charging Louisville squad in the 200 medley relay. The Hoosier team of James Wells, Cody Miller, Max Irwin and Anze Tavcar were solid across the board, overcoming a pair of big splits by Louisville. Wells led off in 22.19 to stake his team to a full second lead. Kameron Chastain outsplit reigning Big Ten champ Cody Miller on breaststroke but Irwin took those few tenths right back on butterfly, giving Tavcar enough room to hold off Carlyle Blondell, who started off a great meet with a 19.4 relay split.
Indiana’s Eric Ress jumped into the 1000 free, finding just enough to knock off Louisville’s Bryan Draganosky 9:12.89 to 9:13.68. But defending NCAA Champ Joao de Lucca crushed the field in the 200 free, going 1:36.70 to put Louisville back in the hunt.
James Wells was a runaway winner in the 100 back, going 47.76 and winning by a second and a half.
One of the marquee matchups of the night was Louisville’s loaded breaststroking corps against Indiana’s All-American Cody Miller. Round One went to Louisville, as Kameron Chastain went 54.37 to top Miller’s 54.88. Thomas Dahlia was just behind in 54.94 for the Cardinals.
Steve Schmuhl and Max Irwin combined for a 1-2 strike in the 200 fly to strike back for Indiana, but Louisville answered back with a 1-2 in the 50 free. Both Carlyle Blondell (19.93) and Joao de Lucca (19.99) got under 20 in a race where the fastest Hoosier was just 20.4, a continued Achilles Heel in the sprints for Indiana.
The Hoosiers did go 1-2-3 in diving with Emad Abdelatif leading the way with a 364.28 score, but Blondell and de Lucca once again combined for a 1-2 finish in the 100 free directly after the diving break. Blondell was a very-fast 43.74 and de Lucca was 44.06. Anze Tavcar was the fastest IU entrant at 45.06.
Those big Louisville finishes were just about nullified by the next few events, though. Eric Ress went 1:44.53 to win the 200 back followed by Steve Schmuhl and James Wells, and then Cody Miller avenged his 100 breast loss by going 1:59.18 to win the 200 over a quartet of tough Cardinals (Thomas Dahlia, 1:59.43, Brennen Berger, 2:00.53, Kameron Chastain, 2:00.57 and Addison Bray, 2:00.71).
Ress then came right back to win the 500 free, going 4:29.72 to lead a 1-2-3 IU punch. The 100 fly went to Louisville’s Pedro Coutinho in a 48.43 touchout over Max Irwin‘s 48.51 and Miller’s 48.62, but by then, the meet was all but sealed. Another Hoosier 1-2-3 in diving (led by Darian Schmidt’s 425.18) was the dagger, and Steve Schmuhl‘s half-second victory over Nolan Tesone in the 400 IM (3:53.20 to 3:53.80) was icing on the cake.
As with the women, the sprinting talent of Louisville did prevail in the 400 free relay. Blondell split an obscene 42.80 and de Lucca was 43.74 for the Cardinals, who went 2:56.30 to win by three seconds.
