Dec. 6, 2013
Day 1 Highlights | Photo Gallery
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IOWA CITY, Iowa — The University of Iowa men’s swimming and diving team sprinted their way into second place after the first day of the Hawkeye Invitational at the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center.
“There was a lot of great competing today, but it is still really early,” said UI head coach Marc Long. “We only had three individual swimming events, and will have a ton of events tomorrow, and we are excited about that.”
Iowa (267 points) trails Notre Dame (346), while leading Denver (197) and Milwaukee (76) after the first day of a three-day Invitational. A strong showing in the lone sprint event of the day helped propel the Hawkeyes into second as the competition heads to the weekend.
During qualifying of the 50-free event, Iowa placed seven Hawkeyes into the eight-man `A’ final. Senior Gianni Sesto and sophomore Jackson Allen tied for first in the final, touching out in 20.47. Joining the duo was sophomore Charles Holliday in third (20.48), junior Grant Betulius in fourth (20.52), sophomore David Ernstsson in fifth (20.54), freshman Jackson Halsmer in sixth (20.57) and freshman Brandon Farnum rounded out the scoring with an eight-place showing (20.89).
In all, the Hawkeyes scored 106 points from the `A’ final, but Iowa wasn’t done.
Sophomore Roman Trussov (20.65), freshman Josh Gill (20.67) and senior Dustin Rhoads (20.75) took the top three spots in the `B’ final to contribute points. Sophoomre Luke Snow (20.98) and senior Andrew Marciniak (21.25) finished fifth and eighth, respectively, in the `B” final to help contribute to the scoring effort as well.
The five Hawkeyes in `B’ final added another 27 points to the team score. When it was all said and done, Iowa had earned 133 points from the event.
Iowa also received strong scoring efforts from both relays that were contested Friday. The Hawkeyes placed second and third in the 200-free relay with the quartet of Sesto, Ernstsson, Allen, and Halsmer touching out in 1:20.26 to finish second, while Farnum, Holliday, Betulius, and Gill took third in 1:20.87.
The Hawkeyes also added a second place finish in the final event of the evening, the 400-medley relay. Rhoads, Marciniak, Betulius, and Sesto finished in 3:11.38, missing out on first by 0.23 seconds. The time is the third-fastest in program history.
Senior Tyler Lentz added a fourth place finish in the 200 IM (1:48.34), while senior Manuel Belzer (4:25.59) and freshman Kyle Gannon (4:28.66) finished in 10th and 16th place, respectively, in the 500-free.
Prelims resume Saturday morning beginning at 10 a.m. (CT).