Feb. 18, 2015
Columbus, Ohio — The University of Iowa women’s swimming team broke two school records Wednesday night on the opening day of the Big Ten Championships at the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion in Columbus, Ohio. Iowa currently sits in seventh place with 46 points, while Michigan (68) and Wisconsin (66) hold the top two spots.
“I’m really proud of the way we started tonight,” said UI head coach Marc Long. “The 200 medley relay got us off to a fast start breaking a school record and the 800-freestyle relay kept the pace going.”
In the opening 200-medley relay, the Hawkeyes’ record-setting performance came from the quartet of Allison Orvis, Emma Sougstad, Carly Obrien, and Olivia Kabacinski. The foursome swam to an eighth-place finish touching out with a time of 1:39.18, besting the previous mark (1:40.12) set at the 2014 Big Ten Championships in Minneapolis. Sougstad was also credited with the fastest breaststroke split among the field (26.82).
In the 800-freestyle relay, the Hawkeyes swam to the second-fastest time in school history behind the team of Becky Stoughton, Kabacinski, Serena Wanasek, and Nikol Lagodzinska. The seventh-place finishers posted a time of 7:12.86, nearly matching the school’s all-time record (7:12.49).
Individually, Stoughton posted a new school record in the opening leg of the 800-freestyle relay — touching out with a time of 1:45.47 and breaking her previous 200-freestyle record (1:46.68) set in 2012.
“Becky was really flying on that opening leg of the 800-free,” said Long. “She led us off great and crushed her old record. Now we just need to get ready for tomorrow for some more swimming and diving.”
Iowa currently sits in seventh place with 46 points, while Michigan (68) and Wisconsin (66) hold the top two spots. The Hawkeyes return to the pool tomorrow morning for day two of the Big Ten Championships. Preliminaries begin at 11 a.m. with finals taking place at 6:30 p.m. (CT).
