Feb. 18, 2012
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IOWA CITY, Iowa — The University of Iowa women’s swimming and diving freshman Becky Stoughton was named this year’s Big Ten Freshman Swimmer of the Year during the final session of the 2012 Big Ten Swimming and Diving Championships. The Hawkeyes placed ninth overall with 201 points. Minnesota won the Big Ten Title with 680.5 points.
“The facility was certainly showcased this weekend and I think the University of Iowa and Rec Services did a great job putting everything together,” said Head Coach Marc Long. “Now we get to do it all over again next week.”
Becky Stoughton kicked off the final day of the championships with a record-setting swim in the 1,650 free. Stoughton crushed her previous school record (16.27.77) with an NCAA provisional cut time of 16:14.14 to place sixth overall. She earned the most individual points for the Hawkeyes at the championships with 44 points.
“It’s hard to argue with all the school records, best times and freshman swimmer of the year award that we got this weekend,” added Long. “Clearly we need to build off this and continue to get better each year, so we can contend in the team race.”
Karolina Wartalowicz qualified for the `C’ final of the 200 breast after posting a collegiate best time of 2:16.59 in the preliminaries. The Oswego, Ill., recorded a new collegiate best time of 2:16.26 at the finals to place 22nd overall.
Abby Tushscherer was awarded the Sportsmanship Award for the Iowa team. The award is given to those who have demonstrated the ideals of sportsmanship, which are fairness, civility, honesty, unselfishness, respect and responsibility. Tuchscherer competed in the `C’ final of the 200 fly and posted a time of 2:01.42 for 18th place.
Hawkeye diver Lauren Kelba placed 15th overall in the platform diving competition with 234.85 points.
The Hawkeyes concluded the 2012 Championships with an eighth place finish in the 400 free relay. The team of Danielle Carty, Emily Hovren, Daniela Cubelic and Stoughton posted an NCAA provisional time of 3:21.66 in the event, which ranks second in school history.
“Overall as a program we need to keep building off this and continue to get freshmen of the year and hopefully get swimmer of the year in the future,” commented Long. “We want to be contending for the team title. We still have our work cut out for us but we definitely had some glimpses of the future this weekend.”