Illinois Illini vs. Iowa Hawkeyes (Women Only)
- February 17, 2025
- CRWC, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa
- Short Course Yards (25 yards), Dual Meet
- Full Meet Results (PDF)
- Team Scores: Iowa 151 def. Illinois 149
The Iowa Hawkeyes picked up their second-straight win against Big Ten rivals Illinois on Thursday. Separated by only two points at the final touch, a clutch win in the 200 IM in the last individual event of the meet by sophomore Olivia Swalley gave the Hawkeyes a chance to seal the meet in the closing relay.
Swalley swam 2:01.26 to win ahead of a trio of Illinois swimmers. That was her best dual meet time of the season and a whopping 3.7 seconds better than she was in the team’s previous outing, 10 days earlier, against Miami.
Swalley came up big all day long for the host Hawkeyes, winning the 100 breast in 1:02.50 (just .07 and .11 ahead of the next two finishers from Illinois, respectively); and then bagged another close win in the 200 breaststroke in 2:16.36, just .22 seconds ahead of Sara Jass‘ runner-up swim for Illinois. In all three races, the trio of swimmers behind her came from the deeper Illinois squad.
That was the story of the day. Iowa won 10 out of 14 individual events on the day, but Illinois’ depth kept the meet close. The Illini won the meet opening 400 medley relay in 3:43.07, which ranks as the 11th-best in program history.
The relay was led by the veteran Stoll in 55.40 on the backstroke leg, and followed by a trio of young swimmers: freshman Kayla Duran (1:01.63 breaststroke), sophomore Chloe Diner (54.87 fly), and Isabella Wilheim (51.17 freestyle). Three of the four legs from last year’s school record relay returned this season, but two of those three were replaced this year. They swam 3:39.20 mid-season to break the record by a second-and-a-half.
Stoll won all four of her events on the day, including three individual entries: 55.09 in the 100 back, 50.81 in the 100 free, and 54.92 in the 100 fly. Including the team’s meet the next day against Nebraska, Stoll has 10 wins in 12 individual swims in dual meets this season; she’s 8-for-8 in the spring semester.
Illinois’ depth was enough to win the 200 free relay even without Stoll, finishing in 1:33.97, but Iowa needed only a runner-up finish to seal the meet, and they got that in 1:34.29. Illinois’ second relay was 1:35.95.
At last year’s Big Ten Championship meet, Iowa finished 11th with 303 points and Illinois finished 12th with 204 points. Swalley led the Hawkeyes with 22 individual points at that meet.
