2018 Hawkeye Invitational
- Thursday, November 15 – Saturday, November 17, 2018
- Iowa City, IA
- SCY
- Live results
Minnesota’s Bowen Becker went 19.70 to pace prelims of the 50 freestyle on the first morning of the Hawkeye Invitational in Iowa.
Women’s 500 Free – Prelims
It was a 1-2 punch for the Golden Gophers to start off the morning. Mackenzie Padington was 4:42.65 to pace the 500 free, edging out teammate Chantal Nack (4:42.81). Padington was .01 faster at last weekend’s ACC-Big Ten Challenge, and has a chance to better her season-best in finals tonight. Nack competed at the ACC-Big Ten meet, but didn’t swim the 500 free, so her time was a season-best by a huge margin (9 seconds faster than she was in dual meets) and only about two seconds off her lifetime-best.
Iowa’s Hannah Burvill (4:44.24) was the third qualifier, cutting more than eight seconds from her seed.
Men’s 500 free – prelims
Missouri State freshman Pawel Krawczyk had a massive morning swim, cutting more than ten seconds from his seed time to go 4:24.97 for the top seed. He should have a solid battle tonight with Iowa freshman Mateusz Arndt (4:25.17) and Missouri State teammate Antonio Thomas (4:25.44).
women’s 200 IM – prelims
Minnesota’s top backstroker, Tevyn Waddell hadn’t swum the 200 IM at all this season, sticking entirely to fly and back. But she powered to a lifetime-best 1:59.83 this morning, her first time under two minutes. That’s probably not an NCAA scoring-level event for her, but does bode well for her 100 back tomorrow, which is vitally important to Minnesota’s medley relay prospects.
Nebraska’s Victoria Beeler was 2:01.16 for the second qualifying spot, followed by SMU’s Andrea Podmanikova (2:01.77).
men’s 200 IM – prelims
Purdue senior Erik Juliusson topped the men’s 200 IM by a wide margin, going 1:45.86. That’s not far off his lifetime-best, a 1:45.49 from Big Tens last year.
Behind him was standout backstroker Mark Nikolaev of Grand Canyon, who had a huge mid-season invite a year ago. Nikolaev was 1:47.31, quite a ways of his 1:43.6 lifetime-best, but two full seconds faster than his 1:49.4 from last year’s mid-season invite. Like with Waddell, that bodes well for his 100 back tomorrow – he went 44.99 last November.
women’s 50 free – prelims
Iowa’s Hannah Burvill came off that 500 free to go 22.62 and lead the 50 free. She’s the runaway top qualifier, four tenths up on Minnesota’s Zoe Avestruz (23.01) and Iowa’s Sarah Schemmel (23.06).
Outside of Burvill, the entire A final finished between 23.01 and 23.38, setting up a great final for tonight.
men’s 50 free – prelims
The biggest swim of the morning came at the very end, with Minnesota’s Bowen Becker going 19.70 in the 50 free. Becker, the top returning swimmer in the nation in the 50 free, was 19.62 last week to win the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, and entered the weekend leading the nation, though he’s since been overtaken by NC State’s Nyls Korstanje (19.29 this morning in Indiana).
Grand Canyon had two swimmers break 20. Freshman Mazen Shoukri was 19.94 and senior Bogdan Plavin 19.97.
