Kansas closes regular season with 180-114 win over Iowa State
Saturday Event Winners
100-Yard Freestyle
Carly Straight, KU – 53.13
200-Yard Backstroke
Pia Pavlic, KU – 2:02.05
200-Yard Breaststroke
Haley Downey, KU – 2:21.12
500-Yard Freestyle
Jenny Nusbaum, KU – 4:59.53
100-Yard Butterfly
Haley Bishop, KU – 56.44
Three-Meter Dive
Julie Dickinson, ISU – 281.10
200-Yard Individual Medley
Elizabeth Amato-Hanner, KU – 2:05.66
400-Yard Freestyle Relay
Kansas ‘A’ – 3:30.25
Haley Downey won the 200-yard breaststroke.
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LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas swimming and diving put a stamp on its 2016-17 regular season with a decisive 180-114 dual win over Iowa State on Saturday. In the meet’s second day of competition, Kansas won all of the races and extended the wide 102-48 lead they held from the previous night of competition.
Carly Straight set the tone for the meet with her first-place 53.13 swim in the 100-yard freestyle, her second-consecutive win in the event. Straight’s win was followed by a Kansas senior sweep in the 200 backstroke. Pia Pavlic (2:02.05), Yulduz Kuchkarova (2:03.83) and Hannah Angell (2:06.04) asserted their dominance for their last swim in the event at Robinson Natatorium. For Pavlic, the win was a much-needed signal that she was fully recovered from her injuries that have sidelined her since the team’s California trip in early January.
“I’ve been dealing with some injuries the past few weeks,” Pavlic said. “The fact that I was able to come in and swim as well as I did was just a big boost to my confidence.”
Afterwards, Haley Downey added to KU’s win tally with her 2:21.12 swim in the 200 breaststroke, securing victories in all of the breaststroke events after winning the 100 breaststroke the previous night. Fellow freshman Jenny Nusbaum followed with her second individual win of the meet, finishing the 500 freestyle in 4:59.53, over six seconds faster than the second-place finisher. It was Nusbaum’s first individual win in an event other than the 200 freestyle, a race she has dominated all year.
Haley Bishop cemented her dominance in the butterfly events over the meet’s two days. Already holding the 200 fly crown, Bishop touched the wall in 56.44, almost three seconds ahead of her closest competitor. In the next race, Elizabeth Amato-Hanner cruised to a 2:05.66 time in the 200 IM, nabbing the freshman her first individual win in the meet. Kansas Relay ‘A’, consisting of Kuchkarova, Nusbaum, Bishop and Carly Straight, took the final race after speeding through the 400 freestyle relay in 3:30.25.
“We had a goal for each day of how we were going to approach it, and we accomplished that,” head coach Clark Campbell said. “One of our goals every year is to have a winning dual meet record and today we came in 4-4. We got the win and it’s our 15th-straight year we’ve had a winning season. We had some really good morning swims, I thought Elizabeth Amato-Hanner had an outstanding meet, Jenny Nusbaum continues to get better and better, Libby Walker had a better day than she did yesterday and even the people that didn’t have as good days that they wanted were able to learn why they did better last night than this morning. We’ve got to figure out our game plan going into Big 12s so we’re ready for both prelims and finals.”
“We traditionally always end our dual meet season with a meet against Iowa State,” Campbell said. “We’ve morphed into rivals in swimming and for a lot of other sports too. Our kids did a really good job of bringing energy and taking care of business at home. It’s nice to win your last meet and bring momentum into the championship.”
The Jayhawks will head to the Big 12 Championship next where they will see the Cyclones for the third time. Along with this weekend’s victory, Kansas finished ahead of Iowa State in the Kansas Classic earlier this season.
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