USA Swimming’s Speedo Sectional meet in Iowa City saw two individual wins apiece from Tevyn Waddell and Danielle Herrmann, with Herrmann also adding a relay win.
Waddell, a 16-year-old out of Mitchell Swim Club, swept the 100 back and 100 fly races. Her 54.20 in the backstroke was the highlight, breaking a four-year-old meet record and beating the field by eight tenths. Waddell also went 54.31 to win a tight battle with Lane Four Aquatics’ coach/pro swimmer Alexa Harris (54.43).
Meanwhile Herrmann, a former Kansas Jayhawk standout, won three total races. The 27-year-old, now competing for Clovis Swim Club, went 59.31 to break the meet record in the 100 breast, and added a 2:00.84 win in the 200 IM later in the night.
Herrmann also led the Clovis Swim Club 800 free relay team to victory, anchoring in 1:48.84. That team also included Stephanie Bartel, Emily Niles and Caitlyn Snyder, and went 7:28.38.
Herrmann held off a charging Kirsten Jacobsen of Barrington Swim Club, who split a very-quick 1:46.02. The 17-year-old Jacobsen, a current high school junior, won the individual 200 free with a 1:47.44.
The boys side also saw Clovis win the 800 free relay, with the team of Carl Weigley, Colin Caanaugh, Preston Mayer and Graham Hauss going 6:45.76. That was led by a 1:39.72 split from the 16-year-old Hauss on the end.
Hauss also won the individual 200 free, going actually a little faster than his relay split at 1:39.44. Another member of that relay doubled up, as Weigley took the 100 fly in a new meet record of 47.12.
Former Cal Bear and current Terrapins pro Sean Mahoney nearly took two events. The 26-year-old went 53.81 to run away with the 100 breaststroke, breaking a meet record there. He was in the hunt in the 200 IM at the halfway point, too, but was disqualified for an illegal back-to-breast turn.
That left the race as a battle between John Bushman and Alex Walton. Walton, an Iowa City Eel and future Missouri Tiger, led big at the halfway point thanks to his huge fly and back splits. But Bushman, a former Wisconsin Badger who jumped across the border to swim unattached-Minnesota, came back big on breaststroke, then overtook Walton on the free leg to win in 1:48.30. Walton was second in 1:48.67.
Also winning on the men’s side was Iowa Hawkeye freshman Kenneth Mende, who went 47.66 to win the 100 backstroke.