The Nebraska Cornhuskers completed their fall semester on Friday with a home dual meet that saw the ladies in red win 12 out of 13 events for a 159-79 meet victory.
For the ‘Huskers, Jordan Ehly had a great meet in winning two individual events, plus swimming the breaststroke leg on the winning 200 medley relay.
She won early with a 2:07.48 in the women’s 200 IM, and continued her success to a 1:05.30 in the 100 yard breaststroke.
While she’s been faster in both races this year, at the team’s mid-season invite in Missouri, the times still show overall signs of a bounceback for the freshman after a bit of a down year during her senior season of high school. As a senior, she was only 1:05.0 in the 100 breast, for example, and is now almost as fast this season in a simple dual meet.
For Northern Iowa, success came early, if not often, when Rachel Siebenaller won the 200 freestyle in 1:53.47 – a come-from-behind victory over the last 50 yards to surpass Nebraska’s Katt Sickle (1:53.54). That’s a new lifetime best for the freshman Siebenaller, and moves her into 2nd-place in the NOrthern Iowa all-time rankings – needing just three-tenths to surpass her sophomore teammate Aftin Phyfe (just 5th in this race in 1:59.98).
If Phyfe gets back on track in the spring semester, and Siebenaller continues to have the hot hand as a freshman, UNI should move up from the 5th (out of 6 teams) that they placed in the 800 free relay at last year’s Missouri Valley Championships.
Nebraska will be back in action on January 10th with a road trip to Florida Gulf Coast, while Northern Iowa still has one meet to go with a stop by Nebraska-Omaha on their way home before they too settle into winter training.