Notes: Hawkeyes face Northern Iowa in Season Opener

THIS WEEK
The University of Iowa women’s swimming and diving team travels to Cedar Falls, Iowa, for its season opening meet against Northern Iowa on Oct. 7. The competition will be held at the Glen F. Henry Swimming and Diving Pool beginning at 5 p.m. (CT).

FOLLOW LIVE
• Live results for the meet will be available on hawkeyesports.com (via the schedule page) and Meet Mobile.
• Fans can also follow the Hawkeyes on Twitter/IowaSwimDive for live meet updates.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
• The Hawkeyes enter the 2022-23 season returning seven athletes and welcoming 14 newcomers, including three transfers.
• Amongst the returners are junior divers Sarah Ballard and Claire Hartley and sophomore Makayla Hughbanks, who all qualified to compete in last season’s NCAA Zone D Diving Championships.

GILBERTSON PREPPED FOR SENIOR SEASON
Senior Kennedy Gilbertson heads into the 2022-23 season after an impressive 2021-22 stint where she recorded a career best 51.28 in the 100 Free and led the Hawkeyes with top times in the 50 free, 100 free, 100 back, 200 back, and 100 fly.

READY FOR RELAYS
The Hawkeyes bring back four swimmers, seniors Kennedy Gilbertson and Aleksandra Olesiak and juniors Maddie Black and Anna Pfeiffer, who led the team in all five team-leading relay squads during the 2021-22 season. Gilbertson was a part of four top teams, while Olesiak and Pfeiffer competed on three respective quartets.

HAWKEYE COACHING STAFF
• Nathan Mundt returns for his second stint with the Hawkeyes and he is the seventh head coach in program history. The Indiana native served as an Iowa assistant coach and recruiting coordinator from 2008-16 where he coached 33 All-Americans and 42 NCAA qualifiers and helped the Hawkeyes to six top 40 NCAA finishes and 115 school records.
• Diving coach Todd Waikel enters his 10th season with the program. Waikel has coached five All-Americans during his tenure in Iowa City and 15 NCAA Championship qualifiers.
• Mona Groteguth-Garcia also returns for her second season on the Hawkeye coaching staff, joining the Hawkeyes in 2021 following a two-year stint at TCU. She helped the Horned Frogs to back-to-back third-place Big 12 Conference finishes — the best for the program since 2012-13. Groteguth-Garcia also coached at the University of Indianapolis from 2017-19 and she swam collegiately at North Texas.

UP NEXT
Iowa will compete in its season home-opener against the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Friday, Oct. 21 at 4 p.m. (CT) in the CRWC Natatorium.