Kansas Holds 9-Point Edge Over Iowa State Entering Final Day of Kansas Classic

2022 Kansas Classic

  • Nov. 18-20, 2022
  • Capitol Federal Natatorium
    • Topeka, Kansas
  • SCY (25 yards)
  • Results on Meet Mobile: “2022 Kansas Classic”
  • Day 2 Results

The Kansas Classic is headed toward a nail-biting finish on Sunday after Kansas rallied to claim a nine-point edge over Iowa State on Saturday.

Team Standings (Women’s)

  1. Kansas – 639
  2. Iowa State – 630
  3. Indiana State – 532
  4. Northern Iowa – 314
  5. Little Rock – 197

Iowa State freshman Gabrielle LePine won the only individual event of the night for the Cyclones (she lowered her best 100 breast time by .64 seconds to 1:02.98, good for 12th in program history), but they stayed within striking range thanks to a pair of relay wins.

The session started with Iowa State’s 200 medley relay victory in 1:41.42  The Cyclones’ 200 medley relay team — composed of Sophia Goushchina (25.86), LePine (28.18), Carley Caughron (24.30), and Trinity Sadecky (23.08) — held off the Jayhawks by just .04 seconds. Then at the end of the night, Lucia Rizzo (1:51.61), Brinley Horras (1:50.91), Corinne Guist (1:51.29), and Ashley Bengtson (1:48.81) combined to total the eighth-fastest time in school history.

“A highlight swim was Ashley Bengtson‘s 800 free relay split, where she went 1:48.81,” Iowa State head coach Duane Sorenson said. “She’s never been that fast before — that was a big standout swim for us.”

After the heartbreaking opener, Kansas bounced back with a 400 IM victory courtesy of Brigid Gwidt. The sophomore topped the podium with a 4:21.22, more than a second faster than Rizzo, the 200 IM champion from Friday. The Jayhawks put two more on the podium in the next event, the 100 fly, between second-place finisher Autumn Looney (54.95) and third-place finisher Lydia Lafferty (54.96). Then they kept their momentum rolling with a 1-2 finish in the 200 free as Claudia Dougan (1:49.31) and Ellie Wehrmann (1:49.33) were the only two swimmers sub-1:50 in the final. The Jayhawks also picked up a victory in the 100 back, where sophomore Lezli Sisung reached the wall first in 54.14.

“It was kind of like yesterday,” said Kansas head coach Clark Campbell. “We came out this morning a little flat. It definitely wasn’t where we wanted to be, but tonight we came back and raced better. We picked up a couple of victories along the way and had some good racing. I’m hoping that tomorrow we can swim better in the morning in the preliminaries because that is what we have to do when we are at Big 12s. We have to get it done in the morning. The goal tomorrow is to swim well in the morning.”

Indiana State senior Marni Gray made it a sweep of the 100 fly with a 54.66, securing the Sycamores’ second win of the weekend. Junior teammate Madie Rutan couldn’t defend her 100 back title from last year’s Kansas Classic, but she still set a new Indiana State record with a 55.00, shaving eight-hundredths off her previous best from last year. Rutan now owns the seven fastest times in program history. Sycamores senior Kaimi Matsumoto went 1:03.60 in the 100 breast to become Indiana State’s fourth-fastest performer ever, and sophomore Alexandria Cotter posted a 4:23.20 in the 400 IM to move up to No. 5 in school history.

The Sycamores’ highlight from Friday’s opening day came when senior Andrea Putrimas threw down a 4:54.48 to win the 500 free by nearly two seconds ahead of Iowa State’s Brinley Horras (4:56.31). In the process, Putrimas crushed the school record belonging to Sarah Moreau (4:55.43) by almost a full second.

Little Rock sophomore Jaelle Carlson placed fourth in the 100 fly with a time of 55.46, taking more than half a second off her previous best from February. She now ranks third all-time in Trojans history in the event. Little Rock teammate Gillian Boggs also became just the second Trojan ever to go sub-4:30 in the 400 IM with her lifetime-best 4:28.29, good for 12th place overall.

The Kansas Classic concludes Sunday with the 200 back, 100 free, 200 breast, 200 fly, 1650 free and 400 free relay.

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Seth
1 year ago

Go Iowa State

About Riley Overend

Riley is an associate editor interested in the stories taking place outside of the pool just as much as the drama between the lane lines. A 2019 graduate of Boston College, he arrived at SwimSwam in April of 2022 after three years as a sports reporter and sports editor at newspapers …

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