Hawkeye Swimmers Get Ready For a Busy Weekend

Jan. 14, 2008

THIS WEEK — The Iowa men and women’s swimming teams will be home for two meets this week. The Hawkeyes will take on Western Illinois Friday beginning at 5 p.m. Saturday will feature a meet against Big Ten foe Illinois, at 11 a.m. The men will not compete in the Saturday meet. Both meets will be held at the UI fieldhouse pool.

ON WESTERN ILLINOIS — Western Illinois comes in with a 5-1 record in dual meets. The men are 3-2. The Leathernecks swim in the Division I Summit League. Iowa defeated both the men and women’s teams last year.

ON ILLINOIS — The meet with Illinois will be women only and features an Illini team with a 2-4 record . The Hawkeyes have already competed against the Illini this year at the Ohio State Invitational, and have one common opponent, Michigan State. In Columbus, Iowa finished third with a score of 455 while Illinois was sixth with 257.5 points.

LAST COMPETITION — The Hawkeyes just returned from a ten day training trip to Florida. With no classes it gave the athletes an opportunity for intense training and improvement. While there, they competed in the Florida International Invitational.

The meet included only eight events, all relays. The women won all of them and the men won all but two. For the men, 13 different Hawkeyes helped their relay teams to first place finishes. They were led by freshman Richard Salhus, who was part of four of the six winning relays. Not far behind was freshman Conor Dwyer with three victories. Fifteen different women claimed first place finishes led by freshman Katarina Tour with five and junior Alison Gschwend, sophomore Christine Kuczek, and sophomore Julie deBruin with four relay victories apiece.

SALHUS NAMED CO-SWIMMER OF THE WEEK — The Big Ten Conference named Hawkeye freshman Richard Salhus the Big Ten Swimmer of the Week after his efforts at the Florida International Invitational. The Plymouth, United Kingdom native participated in the winning 200, 400 and 500 freestyle relays as well as the 200 butterly relay.

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