RCW: Sport Spotlight 4.7 (Swimming & Diving)
First official meet of the year under way!! #kuswimdive pic.twitter.com/xIMY3aRYlJ
— Kansas Swim & Dive (@KUSwimDive) October 6, 2017
These eight will be honored Saturday as #KUswimdive takes on Liberty this weekend! #RockChalk
A post shared by Kansas Swimming and Diving (@kuswimdive) on Oct 5, 2017 at 2:48pm PDT
In the home opening meet of 2017-18, Kansas found itself in a late hole against Liberty halfway through the meet. Just when things were looking down, the last event of the night ignited a fire under the Jayhawk swimmers that carried over to a comeback win Saturday, on Senior Day.
The 400-yard freestyle relay was that last event, and sophomore Jenny Nusbaum was the hero. She swam the second leg of the relay and helped lead the group to a winning time of 3:28.04. Not only did Nusbaum swim the fastest split (50.93) in the relay by any swimmer, but she also helped Kansas edge Liberty by 15 hundredths of a second to cut the Jayhawks’ deficit down to six points.
“That might have been our best event of the night,” head coach Clark Campbell said. “That type of effort is what we needed to carry over into Saturday.”
That exact effort mirrors Nusbaum’s approach to every meet she encounters and was exactly what the Jayhawks needed to kick-start their comeback.
Nusbaum accounted for 40 of the Jayhawks’ 188.5 points and proved her hard work worthy on the 100-yard freestyle when she earned a wining time of 51.63. She also went on to win the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:48.42 and took home the gold in the 1,000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:17.40.
“(Nusbaum) won the 100 free from heat one and she just lit it up,” Campbell said. “We knew she was going to have a good 100 based off of her relay split. So, she just went in and took care of business.”
Nusbaum took care of business against Liberty and if anything, that 400-yard freestyle relay split she swam was the perfect opportunity for her to showcase to everyone what she is capable of doing this season.
