Dec. 4, 2011
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IOWA CITY, Iowa — The 10th ranked University of Iowa men’s swimming and diving team completed the third and final day of the Hawkeye Invitational inside the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center Pool Sunday night. After three days of competition, Iowa finished second out of seven teams with 723 points. Michigan won the invitational with 967 points.
“We had some outstanding races in a quality field of competition, including number one ranked Michigan,” said Head Coach Marc Long. “This was a great preparation as we prepare to race in and host the Big Ten Championships in February.”
Manuel Belzer and Patrick Weigand scored points for the Hawkeyes in the 1,650 free. After 66 laps, Manuel Belzer placed the highest for the Hawkeyes in fourth place with a time of 15:18.20. The time surpassed the NCAA provisional time. Weigand finished in eighth place at 15:47.10.
Iowa had four swimmers representing the Hawkeyes in the `A’ final of the 100 free. Paul Gordon touched the wall second with a time of 43.98, which is just off of his school record (43.51). Duncan Partridge posted a third place finish in the event (44.34), while Ryan Phelan (45.07) and Jordan Huff (45.45) placed seventh and eighth, respectively.
Byron Butler recorded a NCAA provisional time as well as a season best time of 1:45.29 in the 200 back. Later on in the 200 breast, Andrew Marciniak placed second in the event (2:01.05) behind Michigan’s Richard Funk (1:58.06).
In the last individual event of the night, Tyler Lentz and Belzer competed in the `A’ final of the 200 fly. Lentz posted a fifth place finish with a collegiate best time of 1:48.24, which ranks seventh on Iowa’s all-time top performers list. Belzer finished in seventh at 1:51.67.
Iowa concluded the Hawkeye Invitational with the 400 free relay. The quartet of Partridge, Huff, Phelan and Gordon had a close race with Michigan’s squad. Gordon anchored the relay and closed the small gap between Iowa and Michigan to make it neck-in-neck the last 25 yards but Michigan was able to just touch out Iowa. The team posted a second place finishing time of 2:54.78, which ranks fourth in school history.
Diver Osvel Molina was the only Iowa diver to compete in the platform diving event. He accumulated a collegiate best score of 354.15 to place second overall in the event.
The Hawkeyes return to action Jan. 6 when they take on Arizona during their winter training trip in Tucson, Ariz. The meet is set to begin at 2 p.m. (CT).
Final Scores
1. Michigan 967
2. Iowa 723
3. Notre Dame 511
4. Denver 436
5. UW-Milwaukee 312
6. UW-Green Bay 204
7. Minnesota 177