RCW: Sport Spotlight 4.24 (Swimming & Diving)

????200 breast NEW SCHOOL RECORD! Congratulations Haley Downey for breaking ANOTHER record this weekend!!! 2:13.50 for the books!????#kuswimdive

— Kansas Swim & Dive (@KUSwimDive) February 25, 2018

The Jayhawks returned home from the conference championship meet this past weekend inside the Jamail Swimming Center in Austin, Texas with a third-place finish to top off the season. While competing against five other Big 12 teams, the Jayhawks had a number of accomplishments to put in the books and be proud of.
 
One student-athlete in particular really stood out and had outstanding performances. Sophomore Haley Downey managed to not only break University of Kansas history once, but twice, in just two days.
 
Friday morning in the preliminary events, Downey left her team speechless as she made school history and broke the Kansas 100-yard breaststroke by .50 seconds with a time of 1:01.48. Sparked with energy, Downey came back Friday evening and broke the record she had just set, again, this time swimming a 1:01.43.
 
“Downey breaking the record twice proves how tough she is,” head coach Clark Campbell said. “She did one of the hardest races right before–the 400-IM– and she just really showed how mentally tough she is and is a testament to how the type of the work she has been doing in and out of the pool to make herself the best is the sign of a very strong athlete.”
 
For any athlete, one school record is a lifetime goal; a goal that many will never get the chance to complete. As if beating one school record wasn’t enough, Downey proceeded to break her second Kansas record of the meet when she touched the wall at 2:13.50 in the 200-yard breaststroke event Saturday evening during the finals competition. This time is two-tenths of a second ahead of the previous school record set by Allison Lusk in the 2014 Big 12 Championship meet. She (Downey) finished fourth overall.
 
“We knew she had it in her,” Campbell said. “She has done so much work outside of just practice, she has really gone the extra step to be the best she can be and she is starting to realize her potential.”