Kansas vs. Iowa State
- February 7, 2025
- Robinson Natatorium, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
- Short Course Yards (25 yards), College Dual Meet
- Full Meet Results (PDF)
In a battle between the bottom two teams from last year’s Big 12 Championships, the University of Kansas thumped conference rivals Iowa State 181-117 on Friday evening in Lawrence.
“It was a really good meet, we competed well,” said Kansas head coach Clark Campbell. “I was telling our team in our post-race wrap up that the last meet of the year is one of the most bipolar meets of the entire season because you have people that are feeling really good and some people that are just not feeling it yet. But that’s okay because the point is to peak at the end of the month and everyone has different responses to their training.”
For the Jayhawks, Lydia Lafferty and Eleni Kotzamanis won a pair of individual events each.
The junior Lafferty posted a new lifetime best in the 100 back of 54.73. An A-Finalist in the 100 fly at last year’s Big 12 Championships, Lafferty has made significant progress in the backstroke races this year – an event she scratched at last year’s Big 12 Championships.
Her best time in the 100 back coming into the season was 56.82, and she has cleared that swim three times this season – including at the last two dual meets: she swam 55.29 two weeks earlier against Arkansas.
Lafferty also won the 100 fly on Friday in 54.38. That’s just six-tenths short of her best time from prelims at last year’s Big 12 Championships.
Kotzamanis won the 100 free in 50.84 and the 200 free in 1:49.14. Both were close to her lifetime bests of 50.74 and 1:48.90, respectively, done at the mid-season Hawkeye Invitational.
Other highlights for Kansas include a 4:53.27 from freshman Gabi Dyer in the 500 free that knocked almost a second off her best time from high school and more than two-and-a-half off her collegiate best done against Arkansas.
The Jayhawks also won both relays, going 1-2 in the 200 medley in 1:41.13 and 1:42.64, respectively; and winning the 400 free relay in 3:24.92, led by a 50.36 split from Kotzamanis.
While the final score was lopsided, Iowa State did get in a few good shots. That included a sweep of the breaststroke events.
Freshman Grace Swoboda won the 100 breast in 1:01.57 and was 2nd in the 200 in 2:15.93. Those were both lifetime bests: the former by 8-tenths and the latter by almost 7 seconds.
That 200 was won by her freshman teammate Anja Peck in 2:14.70, which was a lifetime best for her as well by 2.2 seconds.
Iowa State scored only 4 points in the breaststroke races at last year’s Big 12 Championships, all from swimmers who are no longer on the team. The freshman duo of Swoboda and Peck are projected to out-perform that result many-times over at this year’s championship.
Of note, Kansas sophomore diver Shiyun Lai set a Robinson Natatorium record on 1-meter with a score of 336.30. She is the only Kansas diver who has surpassed that score at any meet on six dives.
Kansas will send mostly its non-conference team to the Jayhawk First Chance meet next weekend at home, while Iowa State will next compete at the Big 12 Championships in Federal Way, Washington from February 25-March 1.
