Three Olivia Swalley Wins Leads Iowa Past Illinois, 151-149
Olivia Swalley capped a magnificent day of racing by winning the 200 individual medley, giving Iowa the cushion it needed in a 151-149 win over Big Ten rival Illinois.
It was Swalley’s third win of the dual meet in Iowa City. It rendered a win by Illinois in the concluding 200 freestyle relay academic, the Fighting Illini needing a 1-2 finish in order to take the overall victory, which Iowa’s A relay easily prevented.
Swalley’s win in the 200 IM was the only one that wasn’t a squeaker. She went 1:02.50 to win the 100 breaststroke, .07 seconds ahead of Illinois’ Chloe Diner and .11 up on Kayla Duran of the Illini. Swalley’s winning margin in the 200 breast, over Illinois’ Sara Jass, was .22 seconds, Swalley clocking in at 2:16.36. A margin of a second and a quarter over Jass in the 200 IM was thus a relative breeze, Swalley touching in 2:01.26.
“That was an incredible, total team effort today,” Iowa head coach Nathan Mundt said in a press release. “Every swim and every dive mattered in this very close contest. And because of that, we learned a lot about our team and who we are. I told the team that we can continue to improve and keep going with this momentum throughout the end of our season as it approaches. This was a very exciting win for our program to have a Big Ten win in our home pool. Going forward, we know that we have some excitement going into our next meet at Rutgers and into our championship season.”
Diving loomed large, with the Hawkeyes going 1-2 on 3-meter and 1-2-3 on 1-meter. Makayla Hughbanks scored 317.55 to win the higher board with Geneva Pauly second, then they swapped places for Pauly to win 1-meter with a score of 302.90.
Alix O’Brien edged her Hawkeyes teammate Olivia Frantum by .01 in the 1,000 free, O’Brien winning in 10:15.05. Frantum’s consolation was a win in the 500 free. Josie Hood won the 200 butterfly. Rachel Dildine went 23.76 to win the 50 free. Dildine was second in the 100 fly with Hood third. Ashley Galvin and Hope Schimming went 1-2 in the 200 backstroke.
Illinois won both relays, with Isabella Wilhelm the only holdover on both. Jass won the 200 free to go with her two second-place finishes. Sydney Stoll led off the medley relay before winning the 100 back, the 100 free (with Wilhelm second) and the 100 fly. Wilhelm was also second in the 50 free.
