2018 IU INVITATIONAL
- Thursday-Saturday, November 15-17th
- Counsilman Billingsley Aquatic Center, Bloomington, IN
- Short Course Yards
- Live Results
The 3rd and final prelims session of the 2018 IU Invitational featured the 200 back, 100 free, 200 breast, and 200 fly. The distance session this afternoon will be included in the finals recap tonight., which will also have the 400 free relay.
WOMEN’S 200 BACK
NC State freshman, Emma Muzzy, handled prelims of the 200 back, posting a 1:53.64, finishing almost a second ahead of runner-up Elise Haan (1:54.53). NC State’s Kate Moore came in 3rd with a 1:54.85, marking a 1-2-3 finish for NC State in prelims. Muzzy has a personal best of 1:52.01, while Haan has a best of 1:51.48, and Moore 1:53.96. The Wolfpack advanced another 2 swimmers to the A final tonight, with Kylee Alons coming in 5th with a 1:55.71, and Mackenzie Glover coming in 7th with a 1:56.05.
MEN’S 200 BACK
ASU’s Zachary Poti posted a 1:41.34 to take the top seed for tonight in the men’s 200 back. Poti, who won the 100 back yesterday, has a personal best of 1:40.48. Coleman Stewart (NC State) came in 2nd this morning, posting a 1:42.54, with Gabriel Fantoni (IU) coming in 3rd with a 1:43.61. This was Stewart’s first 200 back of the season, an event where he made finals at last year’s NCAAs, posting a 1:39.54. Shaine Casas of Texas A&M set the standard last night at the Art Adamson Invite, swimming a nation-leading 1:40.04. Mohamed Samy (IU) notably did not swim the 200 back today, an event where he finaled at last year’s NCAAs.
WOMEN’S 100 FREE
Mallory Comerford (Louisville) unsurprisingly took the top seed here, but NC State’s Ky-Lee Perry was just off Comerford this morning. Comerford swam a 47.70, with Perry coming in at 47.73. Perry’s time knocked 2-tenths of a second off her personal best, while Comerford has been under 47 seconds already this season. Louisville then picked up the next 5 finishes, with Arina Openysheva, Lainey Visscher, Casey Fanz, Annette Schultz, and Diana Dunn all making the A final. The Cardinals also picked up 3 of the spots in the B final.
MEN’S 100 FREE
The men’s 100 free was fast this morning, with 5 swimmers going under 43 seconds. Zazh Apple (IU) led the way, touching in a season best and 2nd fastest time in the nation this year of 42.25. Apple’s previous season best was from the ACC vs Big Ten Challenge last weekend, where he went 42.75. Jacob Molacek (NC State) was the next in, touching in 42.62, followed by Justin Ress (NC State) at 42.76, Bruno Blaskovic (IU) at 42.77, and Mohamed Samy (IU) at 42.96. NC State freshman Nyls Korstanje had a lifetime best of 43.06 to come in 6th. This morning set up what should be a fast final tonight, and a fiery 400 free relay.
WOMEN’S 200 BREAST
Lilly King (IU) accomplished the mission she set out to this morning: splitting under 30 seconds on the last 50. Last night King said her plan for this morning was to “swim easy for the first 150, then see if I can break 30 on the last 50”. She did, in fact, do just that, posting 50 splits of 29.15, 34.16, 34.55, and a blistering 29.59 on the end. That last 50 split was faster than her second 50 of the 100 breast last night, where she went the 3rd fastest time in history. If King swims an aggressive race from the start tonight, who knows what she’ll do.
IU freshman Noelle Peplowski continued to have an outstanding meet, clocking a 2:09.46 to come in 2nd this morning. That time marks a 4 second drop for Peplowski, coming on the heels of a 2 second drop in the 100 yesterday. 2 other swimmers were under 2:10 this morning, with Sophie Hansson coming in 3rd with a 2:09.54, and IU’s Laura Morley breaking 2:10 for the first time with a 2:09.98.
MEN’S 200 BREAST
The most notably thing from this morning may not be who made the A final, but rather who didn’t. Ian Finnerty, the defending NCAA champ with a time of 1:50.17, came in 12th this morning with a 2:01.08. Finnerty died on the back half of the race, clocking a 1:05.06 on the 2nd 100. He’ll be competing in the B final tonight.
Danny Comforti (ASU) took the top seed this morning, posting a 1:56.40, not too far off his personal best of 1:54.37. Evgenii Somov (Louisville), who has the fastest best time in the field aside from Finnerty, came in 2nd, swimming a 1:57.62. IU and NC State each had 3 swimmers qualify for the A final tonight.
WOMEN’S 200 FLY
Grace Oglesby (Louisville) cruised to the top time this morning, swimming a 1:53.65. Teammate Alena Kraus was the next fastest, touching in 1:56.28, roughly half a second ahead of IU’s Christie Jensen (1:56.71). Ruby Martin (ASU), who has the 2nd fastest personal best in the field (1:54.74), came in 7th this morning with a 1:59.39.
MEN’S 200 FLY
The field in this morning’s final event was pretty tight, with Andreas Vazaios (NC State) leading the way, and 8th place finisher Cory Gambardella (IU) coming in only 2.26 seconds behind Vazaios. Vazaios swam a 1:43.16, edging out Zach Brown (NC State), who went 1:43.39. Vini Lanza (IU) came in 3rd with a 1:44.01. Judging by this morning’s times, this race should be a close one to watch for tonight.
I am still worried about Townley, but one of Longhorn freshmen is going under 41.
The piano has found its new favorite victim since Shields has outgrown it.
Training at IU has been good for Zapple.
To be fair, he was pretty darn fast while at Auburn, actually much faster than he’s been so far at Indiana. Let’s wait and see how he does at NCAAs. If he goes 18.7/40.9/1:30, then you can say the training at Indiana has been good to him. But let’s not forget how fast he was last year with Auburn.
Correction: training with Brett Hawke.
Under the circumstances going to IU was from far the best option.
AHAHHAHAHA Finnerty
Howard from Alabama 42.19
Just updated the post. I thought I’d checked all the invites, but I missed GT. Thanks!