Two relay wins were not enough to power the Illinois Fighting Illini over the Iowa Hawkeyes as the Hawkeye trio of Becky Stoughton and Emma Sougstad and Taylor Flummerfelt combined for seven individual event wins.
Final score:
Iowa 165 – Illinois 135
Full results here.
The Illini topped the Hawkeyes in the medley relay, in part because of a strong butterfly leg from Lori Lynn. Lynn’s 24.66 proved to be the difference maker. Iowa’s Carly O’Brien split a 25.80, but the Illini were out split on every other leg of the relay. Illinois won with a 1:44.59, Iowa touched the wall in 1:44.62.
From there, however, Iowa senior Becky Stoughton and two of her teammates took over. Stoughton was the only swimmer under 10 minutes in the 1000 freestyle, posting a 9:59.58. She was also the only swimmer under five minutes in the 500 with her 4:53.65.
Stoughton, who broke the Iowa school record in Hawkeyes’ last outing, against Iowa State on December 12, also won the 200 fly with a 2:04.08. She dominated all three events, winning the 1000 by over 22 seconds, the 200 fly by almost 2 seconds, and the 500 by over 10 seconds.
Emma Sougstad, who broke two school records against Iowa State, picked up where she left off as well. She won the 100 breaststroke in 1:04.47, well off her record of 1:00.14, but still good for a victory of more than a second over Illinois’ Sam Stratford who finished second in 1:05.67.
Iowa swept the 200 breaststroke in Sougstad’s other individual event win. Sougstad touched in 2:19.36, followed by Colleen Champa and Shea Hoyt, who finished in 2:23.93 and 2:24.81, respectively, a big points boost for Iowa late in the meet.
Taylor Flummerfelt won both the sprint events for the Hawkeyes. In the 50 she touched first in 24.52. In the 100, she beat teammate Olivia Kabacinski to the wall by a hundredth of a second, 52.70 to Kabacinski’s 52.71.
Illinois put up a solid fight, however. Gabbie Stecker took the 200 freestyle by over a second in 1:52.28, beating Iowa’s Olivia Kabacinski (1:53.53) and Serena Wanasek (1:53.69).
Then Allison Meng topped Iowa’s Meghan Lavelle and Rowan Hauber. Meng hit the wall with a 55.99, topping Lavelle’s 56.37 and Hauber’s 57.98.
Meng outdid Lavelle again with a win in the 200 backstroke. Meng charged hard over the last 100 to close a gap of .72 seconds to top Lavelle 2:03.34 to 2:03.56. Meng out-split Lavell 1:02.34 to 1:03.28 to nab the come from behind win.
Lynn won the 100 fly with a 56.93 performance, beating teammate Sam Stratford, who took second with a 57.71.
Following the diving break, Stratford took the 200 IM with a pool record 2:04.31. Illinois also topped Iowa in the 400 freestyle relay with a 3:29.95. Sabrinne Gibson posted the top split with a 52.16.
