A classic in-state rivalry was renewed Friday night, with the Iowa Hawkeye women heading to Ames to take on the Iowa State Cyclones. The Hawkeyes ultimately took their fourth straight win of 2013 in a back-and-forth showdown that saw 6 pool records and even some Iowa State school records fall.
The Cyclones fired up the home crowd from the get-go by crushing a pool record in the first event of the night. The Iowa State team of Bre Loeschke, Imelda Wistey, Kaylee Kucera and Amanda Paulson went 1:41.40 to win the race by two full seconds and break the old pool record by one. Wistey was 27.7 on breaststroke and Paulson went 22.6 swimming freestyle; those two contributed most decisively to the lead, but all four Cyclones had the fastest splits in the field for their respective strokes.
But Iowa fired back with a 1-2 in the 1000 free, with top entrant Becky Stoughton going 10:07.95 and Hillary Weigand taking second.
Iowa State’s freshman phenom Karyl Clarete put the Cyclones back on top by going 1:48.38 in the 200 free to give the home team its second win and second pool record. Those first two individual races set up one of the great rivalries of this meet, Stoughton vs Clarete – those two would tangle again in a decisive 500 free later in the night.
The pendulum swung back towards the Hawkeyes in the next event, the 100 back, though. Iowa senior Lindsey Seemann took her first of two wins on the night, taking the field easily in 54.75. Iowa State’s top competitor Marissa Engel was a distant 56.06, but the Cyclones did sweep spots 2 through 4 in the race to keep the score manageable.
Continuing the trend, Iowa State struck back, winning another event, and yes, breaking another pool record. Only this time, breaststroker Imelda Wistey added an Iowa State pool record to her haul, going 1:00.46 for the fastest time in school history, almost a second faster than her previous record.
Abbey Tuchscherer won the 200 fly for Iowa, going 2:02.20, her first of a pair of wins. Once again, Iowa State returned serve, winning the 50 free with Amanda Paulson’s 23.15. Freshman Savanna Townsend added in a second place finish.
Iowa went 1-2 in the 1-meter diving event, with Joelle Christy scoring 303.60 to win and Abby Grilli taking second. That finish locked things up into a 75-75 tie heading into the second block of swimming events.
Iowa put together the first back-to-back wins of the night when Olivia Kabacinski won the 100 free in 50.45. To this point, the meet had worked out like a chess match, with each team moving its top swimmers to various events and winning easily. But that started to change in the second half of the meet, when the studs started to collide in the same races. One example was this 100 free, where Iowa State’s Amanda Paulson, who won the 50 easily before the diving break, raced Kabacinski hard for four lengths, taking second in 50.75.
Lindsey Seemann picked up her second win for Iowa in the 200 back. She was clearly the backstroker to beat on this night, going 1:57.82 to break a pool record and complete a sweep of the backstroke races.
Iowa State needed a boost at this point and got one from senior Imelda Wistey, who not only swept the breaststroke races but broke school records in both. Wistey went 2:13.76, bettering her 2011 school record of 2:15.31.
That led to the 500 free, where 1000 winner Becky Stoughton of Iowa and Iowa State 200 free champ Karyl Clarete went head to head. Stoughton jumped out to a lead over the first 200, but Clarete roared back and the two were exactly tied, down to the hundredth, at the halfway marker. Clarete then took her turn leading through the 400 mark before Stoughton shot past her in the final 4 lengths to win. Stoughton went 4:50.92 for a pool record to give Iowa a 5-point lead. Clarete wound up at 4:52.17 for second place.
Iowa started to pile on after that, with senior Abbey Tuchsherer winning the 100 fly in 55.43 and fellow senior Haley Gordon taking second. The Hawkeyes went 1-2 once again in diving – this time Abby Grilli won with a score of 336.97 followed by Joelle Christy’s 321.52.
Iowa State made one final charge in the 200 IM – junior Sarah Deis went 2:03.66 to just beat out Becky Stoughton’s pool record of 2:03.70 from 2011.
But Iowa shut the door with a 400 free relay win. The team of Olivia Kabacinski, Emily Hovren, Jennifer Weigand and Lindsey Seemann went 3:24.14 to win, powered by Kabacinski’s 50.82 leadoff and Seemann’s 50.41 anchor leg. Iowa State took second, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Iowa, which won the dual 165-135.