Vanderbilt vs. University of Iowa Dual Meet
- October 28th, 2023
- Centennial Sportsplex, Nashville, Tennessee
- Short Course Yards (SCY)
- Results on MeetMobile: “Iowa vs Vanderbilt”
- Full Meet Results (PDF)
- Final Score
- Vanderbilt – 138
- Iowa – 124
In a battle of women’s only programs, Vanderbilt narrowly edged out Iowa in their home pool. This was only the second time the two teams had ever met, with the first meeting last season ending in a tie.
The Commodores jumped out to an early lead, edging out Iowa in the 200 medley relay. The team of Sophia Kosturos, Faith Nelson, Kailia Utley, and Abby Francis touched in 1:42.21, just four tenths of a second ahead of Iowa’s top squad.
Following her win in as a member of the relay, Utley went on to be the only multiple event winner of the day for Vanderbilt, sweeping the butterfly events.
Utley’s first individual title came in the 200 fly, with the junior winning the event by nearly three seconds. Utley touched at 2:00.67, well clear of Iowa’s Scarlet Martin‘s time of 2:03.21. The pair would later face off again in the 100 fly, with Utley only narrowly claiming the top spot. With Martin only .03 behind her, Utley took her second win in 54.84. Utley now holds the National Invitational Championship (NIC) B-standard in both butterfly events, becoming the first member of her team to have two such times this season.
Iowa nearly swept the 1000 free, taking the top two spots. The top spot went to Alix O’Brien, who led the field by a wide margin in 10:22.04. She was followed by teammate Olivia Fratum, who touched at 10:30.34.
The Hawkeyes picked up their second win of the day one event later, with freshman Jenna Kerr picking up her first of two wins on the day. In a slow battle with Vanderbilt’s Ellie Taliaferro, Kerr secured first in 1:50.40. Facing a field that included O’Brien, Fratum, and Taliaferro, Kerr picked up her second win later in the day in the 500 free. The freshman claimed first by over a second, touching at 4:57.49.
Vanderbilt picked up an event win in the 100 back, with Kosturos touching in 55.75.
The top performances of the day for Iowa came from Olivia Swalley, who won three individual events. Her first win came in the 100 breast, where she led the field by almost a second in 1:02.16. She followed that performance with wins in both the 200 breast (2:17.41) and 200 IM (2:03.26).
In addition to three individual wins, Swalley also added her name to the Hawkeye record books in both breaststroke events. In the 100 breast, she now stands as the ninth fastest performer in the event all time while her 200 breast makes her the schools seventh fastest swimmer in the event.
Vanderbilt swept the sprint events, with Megan Ciezczak and Abby Francis winning the 50 and 100 freestyles, respectively. Ciezcsak took the win in the 50 in 23.83, while Francis won the 100 in 51.54.
The Commodores picked up another event title in the 200 back, with Grace Ciaramitaro taking first in 2:00.54.
Iowa closed out the meet by winning the 400 free relay, with Kerr, Sabina Kupcova, Josie Hood and Scarlet Martin combining to end the meet with a time of 3:23.72.
