Oct. 23, 2009
Postmeet Video interview with M. Long
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IOWA CITY, IA- The University of Iowa men’s and women’s swimming team hosted Michigan State and Wisconsin Milwaukee for their first home dual meet of the season. The Iowa men and women both opened their first home meet with wins against both opponents.
“The meet went great tonight,” said Head Coach Marc Long. “We kicked the meet off great with our relays and with both men and women distance swimmers right off the bat. We got the meet moving in the right direction right away.”
The Iowa women started the meet with a great 200 medley relay. They placed first with a time of 1:45.18. The men’s relay team continued the winning streak by placing first in the 200 medley relay (1:33.30). Iowa’s second place team had a close race with Michigan State but claimed the second place spot for Iowa.
The Hawkeyes had a solid start to the individual races. Senior Nick Divan won the 1,000 free with a time of 9:37.25, which was two seconds faster than his time (9:40.27) last week at Wisconsin. Senior Verity Hicks claimed two first place finishes in the 200 free (1:53.02) and the 500 free (5:06.43). Freshman Byron Butler continues to have a great rookie year, winning both his individual events, the 200 fly (1:54.95) and 200 back (1:53.14).
The women’s 100 breast was an exciting race that had the fans cheering extra loud for the Hawkeyes. It was a close race between the top four swimmers but Iowa’s senior Julie Feingold grabbed the win with a time of 1:05.79. Feingold also had a strong race in the 200 breast (2:22.85), claiming the top spot after leading the entire race. She improved both her times from last week’s meet at Wisconsin.
The Iowa men and women finished the meet on a positive note. The women’s 400 free relay team took first place with a time of 3:32.10, which was three seconds faster than Michigan State’s second- place finish (3:35.67).The men’s relay team also won the 400 free relay (3:13.37) after a close race, which had the fans on their feet the last 100 yards of the race.
“It’s always nice to have a Big Ten win,” added Coach Long. “We have a big meet tomorrow morning so they have to prepare themselves right now for that. We have to scuffle some things around, look at the results and take a look at everything so things could look quite a bit different tomorrow.”
Complete results are not available as of press time and will be released tomorrow.