Kansas at Air Force Women
The Air Force Women made a bold statement on Saturday, defeating Kansas 154-146 at the US Air Force Academy Natatorium. The Falcons won 10 of the 16 events.
Kansas Head Coach’s reaction to the meet, from Kansas’s official press release –
“Air Force had a very good meet and the University of Kansas did not,” head coach Clack Campbell said. “We dove well enough with Alyssa Golden to be close in scoring, but we just fell short. It was a tough start to the season, but we know what we need to work on, aquatic fitness, and I expect to see improvement this week. That’s what we are going to focus on this week; work on getting back in swimming shape and being better athletes.”
Kansas had a strong performance in the first event of the meet, placing first in the 200-yard medley relay with Yulduz Kuchkarova, Bryce Hinde, Pia Pavlic, and Leah Pfitzer.
Kansas had the advantage with a relay win, but momentum got stalled up the next two events. Freshman Genevieve Miller went on to win the 1000 freestyle for the Falcons, at 10:31.09. She would also win the 500 freestyle later on in the meet at 5:04.50
In both races, Sara Menke finished second for the Air Force.
Junior Kim Davis was instrumental in the win over Kansas. She started off as the anchor on their medley relay that finished second. But then she took first in the 200 freestyle, 1:52.99. She also won two more individual events, the 200 breaststroke (2:20.17) and 200 IM (2:06.90).
The momentum was in the Falcons favor, and senior Sam Laughlin rode that wave. She placed first in both the 100- and 200-yard backstroke, 57.23 and 2:04.69. Those first place points were critical, since the next Falcon to finish was in the fifth spot both times.
Kansas was able to get an individual event win before the break. Hinde chalked up points for the Jayhawks placing first in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:05.68) before following it up with a second-place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke in the second half of the meet.
Chelsie Miller of Kansas followed Hinde and claimed her individual victory in the 200 butterfly, a second over Jenna Tasic, 2:08.90 to 2:09.99.
In the short sprint events, Air Force had Erin Bleyl who took victories in both. Her teammate Hannah Cesare followed her into the wall in second in both events.
The Falcons then would win the next three events, 200 back, 200 breaststroke (Kim Davis, 2:20.17), and 500 freestyle.
Kansas responded back before the last break with a 1-2-3 sweep in the 100 butterfly by Leah Pfitzer, Deanna Marks and Pia Pavlic, all sub 59-seconds.
Kansas was in the lead, but not for long. When Davis stepped up and won the 200 IM at 2:06.90 and her teammate Natsuko Worrell finished in fifth, the Falcon had the one point advantage into the 400 freestyle relay.
The group of Bleyl, Laughlin, Miller and Cesare then won the 400 free relay with a time of 3:31.13 to help pull out the win for AFA. Over the course of the first 250, Air Force was steadily pulling ahead, until the last 150 where they handily won.
The Falcons first and third finishes sealed the victory, and a great season opener for the Air Force women.
As for diving, Alyssa Golden did her job on the boards, winning the 1m and 3m. Also scoring for Kansas was freshman Graylyn Jones, who placed third off the one-meter board (226.20) and freshman Amanda Maser also scored points in the three-meter dive, placing fourth with a score of 222.00.
Though they were great, it wasn’t enough for Kansas to overcome in the swimming pool.
Kansas will hit the pool again 10/17 when they travel to Ft. Worth, Texas, to take on TCU.
Air Force will swim again 10/18, hosting a five-way meet.
Iowa State at Nebraska
Both Iowa State and Nebraska opened up their season this afternoon in Lincoln, Nebraska. The teams ended up in a tie, 150-150, which is quite rare in duel meet competition. The two teams have met for 40 times over the years, and bring out the best in each other.
“It was our first true test of the year,” head coach Pablo Morales said. “We knew coming into this meet it was going to be a tough one. Iowa State came in ready to go. I am very proud of how our girls still battled until the very end. There aren’t supposed to be ties in swimming dual meets but I guess we had one anyway.”
– Quote from Head Coach Pablo Morales from official Nebraska press release
“We expected this to happen,” Iowa State head coach Duane Sorenson said. “It was a typical Iowa State-Nebraska competition. We have been doing the same thing for the past six or seven years.”
– Quote from Head Coach Duane Sorenson from official Iowa State press release
Both teams won 8 events each of the 16 event meet line up. In the first individual event of the night, the 1000 freestyle, Bailey Pons from Nebraska held off quite the comeback effort for Iowa State’s freshman Karyl Clarete by .3 of a second. Pons was 10:13.66 to Clarete’s 10:13.95.
Clarete would top Pons later in the 500 freestyler by four seconds. Her winning time was 5:01.52, once again a strong back half performance.
Other highlights in the first half of the meet came from Imelda Wistey from Iowa State who won the 100 breaststroke in 1:03.17. Earlier in the meet, she split a 28.7 in the 200 medley relay that finished second.
Nebraska’s Natalie Morris swept the butterfly events, winning the 200 in 2:06.21 and the 100 in 57.35. In the 100 freestyle, Taryn Collura (NEB) got the win by .07 over Amanda Paulson (Iowa St.), 51.91 to 52.04.
Taking the top three spots in both diving and also in the 100 butterfly, Nebraska had a strong advantage heading into the final two events, the 200 IM and 400 freestyle relay. Iowa State had to sweep the 200 IM, plus then win first and third in the relay for the tie.
Sarah Deis led the charge in the 200 IM for Iowa State, touching first at 2:07.93. Her teammates Marissa Engel and Wistey followed her in 2:09.04 and 2:09.20 for the sweep.
Earlier in the meet, Engel had a dominating performance in the 200 backstroke, topping the field by three seconds at 2:03.81.
The relay team of Paulson, Elizabeth Kleiner, Clarete and Katie Vollhaber would win the 400 freestyle relay for Iowa State, thanks to a strong last two legs to pull away from Nebraska.
The B-relay from Iowa State had a three second lead over the B-relay from Nebraska, and maintained it to finish third, which swung the points into a lie between the two teams.
Big 12 team Iowa State will swim again 10/19 at South Dakota State.