Records fall after day one of Iowa State dual
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Junior freestyler Jenny Nusbaum and senior diver Vicky Xu each broke a Robinson Natatorium pool record as the Kansas swimming and diving team jumped out to an early 113.5 – 35.5 lead following day one action of a two-day dual with Iowa State Friday evening.
Nusbaum led wire-to-wire in the 200-yard freestyle to break a 10-year-old pool record, finishing with a time of 1:48.05. She bested that previous mark set in 2008 by eight tenths of a second (1:48.85).
Xu won the one-meter board by 70.95 points to set her third-straight Kansas record in as many meets. She has now accumulated four first-place finishes in five events competed since joining the team in January.
Those two performances capped off an evening where the Jayhawks recorded seven first-place finishes and 17 top-three finishes overall.
KEY RACES
- Sophomore Manon Manning, freshman Kate Steward, junior Elizabeth Amato-Hanner and junior Carly Straight won the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:43.59.
- Sophomore Crissie Blomquist took the 1,000-yard freestyle event with a new personal-best of 10:06.80.
- Junior Jenny Nusbaum broke the Robinson Natatorium pool record in the 200-yard freestyle by eight-tenths of a second with a time of 1:48.05.
- Amato-Hanner touched the wall first in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 55.20.
- Steward won the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:03.87.
- Senior Vicky XU won the one-meter dive by 70.95 points with a score of 330.15.
- Senior Haley Bishop won the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 23.92.
QUOTES
Head coach Clark Campbell
On how the team performed:
“We really started the meet well. It is important to do so with any two-day meet, because at the midway point we have a commanding lead. We have eight more events tomorrow, and we need to get off to another fast start because this meet replicates what we will face at the Big 12 Championship. We have a quick turn around and tomorrow morning we get to see how well we recovered from a night of racing. We want to finish tomorrow as strong as we started tonight.”
On Nusbaum and Xu’s performances tonight:
“We are really happy for both of them. For Jenny, this has been a pool record we have talked about and kind of made a goal of doing that. We knew she had it in her and we had been working on things. To her credit she worked so hard on putting the fine points in on the races so she was out the right way and came back great. She not only broke it, she really broke it by a lot, so we were really happy for her. And Vicky, whenever we go to a pool Vicky breaks a record, so it is really fun to watch her compete and see how she is improving. She said tonight was the best one-meter so far in the season, so we will take that. She gets to do what she really loves to do tomorrow, and that is three-meter.”
Junior Jenny Nusbaum
On starting this last meet before conference well:
“Coach Campbell has really been talking to us about fine-tuning everything, and taking this as a competition before the Big 12 Championship to get a chance to fix everything you need to fix and really go out and be competitive. I think we were all just wanting to beat (Iowa State) and show them that they are not going to touch us at the conference meet.”
On setting the 200-yard freestyle pool record:
“I kind of had the record on the back of my mind—I saw it earlier this season. Coach Campbell and I talked about what I needed to do in my race, and he said if I am at a certain point he would be on the side going crazy. I looked over and he was going crazy, so I just went for it and it was really cool.”
UP NEXT
Kansas and Iowa State will conclude the two-day dual meet Saturday morning, Feb. 9 with a 10 a.m. start inside Robinson Natatorium.
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