The Northwestern Wildcat women edged out Iowa 152-142 in a closely contested dual meet Saturday. The Wildcats topped Iowa in the 400 freestyle relay to seal the win. The Iowa men meanwhile won 171-129, without winning a freestyle event.
Full results available here
Women’s meet:
Through the 100 fly, where Northwestern’s Aja Malone and Maddy Sims took the top two spots, in 55.84 and 56.69 respectively, Northwestern led 132-94. Iowa got a big points boost from diving, and then scored a win from Emma Sougstad in the 200 IM to knock the deficit to just one point, a 139-138 Northwestern advantage.
Northwestern’s Mary Warren opened up with a 51.10 to Lauren Leehy’s 51.74. Anna Keane maintained a lead for Northwestern with a 51.30 to Becky Stoughton’s 51.28. Iowa reeled in the Wildcats with Nikol Lagodzinska’s 51.10 to Malone’s 52.25. However, Iowa’s lead would be short lived. Annika Winsnes blew out Meghan Lavelle, 49.83 to 52.68. Northwestern won the relay, and the meet, with a 3:24.48. Iowa touched in 3:26.80.
Northwestern also won the 200 medley relay in another close race. Iowa led going into the freestyle, but Mary Warren scored the win for Northwestern with a 22.59 anchor leg. The Wildcats finished in 1:43.12 to Iowa’s 1:43.18.
Outside the relays, the two teams traded wins all day. Sougstad won both the breaststrokes, a 1:03.23 in the 100 and 2:18.07 in the 200. Northwestern’s Lacey Locke took the 100 and 200 backstrokes in 55.63 and the 1:59.97, respectively.
Later, Sougstad out lasted a hard charge from Locke to top the 200 IM. Locke closed with a 28.79 over the freestyle leg, but could not run Sougstad down, finishing in 2:04.89 to Sougstad’s 2:04.55.
Warren would win the 50 freestyle for Northwestern in 23.31, and then take second to Wisnes in the 100. Wisnes won 100 with a 50.97, and Warren finished in 51.17.
Stoughton would add two victories for the Hawkeyes, topping the field in the 1000 in 9:56.91, as the only swimmer under 10 minutes. Her second victory came in the 500, where she posted a 4:53.58.
Men’s meet:
Iowa won the men’s half of the meet in more convincing fashion, but did so without winning a freestyle event.
Jordan Wilimovsky, one of the nation’s top distance swimmers, won both the 1000, in 9:20.93, and 500, in 4:31.33. Almog Olshtein added victories in both the 50 and 100 for the Wildcats, hitting the wall in 20.53 in the 50 and 45.35 in the 100.
Charlie Cole, who finished runner up to Wilimovsky in the 500, completed the Wildcat freestyle sweep with a 1:39.48 in the 200, the only swimmer under 1:40, and a victory of over a second and a half.
However, the Hawkeyes would answer with a cast of three swimmers winning two events each.
Grant Betulius won the 100 backstroke with a 48.49, well ahead of Northwestern’s Mark Ferguson, who took second in 49.85. Betulius and teammates Chris Freeman and Andrew Parker then combined to sweep the 200 backstroke, with Betulius winning in 1:48.34. Freeman touched in 1:49.93, and Andrew Parker rounded out the top three with a 1:50.32.
The breaststroke races both went to Roman Trussov. Trussov won the 100 in 54.98, and the 200 in 2:01.77.
Jerzy Twarowski out did ferguson in the 100 butterfly, 48.50 to Ferguson’s 48.78, Twarowski took the 200 in 1:48.85 and took the top spot of another Hawkeye sweep. Freeman took second with a 1:50.18, and Mike Vinyard finished third with a 1:51.16.
Betulius, Trussov, Twarowski, and Jackson Halsmer combined for a 200 medley relay victory, in 1:30.06. Northwestern finished first, however a false start disqualified the relay.
Despite the individual freestyle woes, Iowa did win the 400 freestyle relay by just .02 hundredths. Halsmer, David Ernstsson, Chuck Holliday, and Betulius combined for the victory over the Northwestern team of Almog, Ferguson, Nick Petersen, and Uula Auren. Uula out split Betulius 44.94 to 45.04, could not complete the run down as Iowa won with a 3:01.32 to Northwestern’s 3:01.34.
