Impressive performances by veterans and rookies made for an exciting opening day for Kansas swimming and diving's 2015-16 season inside Robinson Natatorium Friday evening.
The weekend features the Jayhawks against Missouri State and Denver in double dual fashion. At the conclusion of the first day, Kansas leads the Bears, 150-32 and trails the Pioneers, 93-91.
Junior Hannah Angell came up big for the Jayhawks, posting two double-dual career bests in the 100-yard backstroke and her 50-yard backstroke leg in the 200 IM relay. The Overland Park, Kansas product never succumbed under pressure, out-touching Denver's Morgan McCormick by .08 seconds in the second heat of her 100-yard backstroke turning in a time of 56.85.
"Hannah's races today were big time," head coach Clark Campbell said. "We talked about stepping up this week and she embraced that challenge."
In her collegiate debut, freshman Libby Walker chalked up the first individual victory of the evening in the 1,000-yard free after swimming a time of 10:14.09 and winning the race by nearly two seconds. Walker had another notable performance in the 200-yard butterfly (2:04.68), finishing third only behind teammate Chelsie Miller (2:01.96) and Denver's Dora Kiss (2:04.06).
"It was a good race," Walker said. "I was really excited and just wanted to go out there and win it for my team. It felt really good, I was a little nervous, but it's one of the races that I'm really confident in and knew that I could swim well."
Aside from the 200-yard fly, Miller turned in another first-place finish in the 200-yard individual medley, winning the event by less than half a second with a time of 2:05.44. The senior from Houston, Texas, was also a member of Kansas' A relay team in the 800-yard freestyle who fell to Denver's A relay (7:30.98) in a hard-fought battle. Miller was joined by Haley Bishop, Haley Molden and Sammie Schurig, on the team that recorded a 7:31.65 in the final event of the evening.
In addition, Molden showed her experience in the pool placing second in the 200-yard freestyle (1:51.06) behind Pioneer junior Johanna Roas (1:50.48).
In the 50-yard freestyle the Jayhawks earned three of the top-four places with Bishop (24.04) placing second, sophomore Hannah Driscoll (24.43) earning third, and freshman Breonna Barker (24.54) coming in fourth.
"Today was a mixed bag," Campbell said. "We have some new bodies and we made some mistakes, but they came back and performed really well. We have to recover well and be ready to come in tomorrow so we can be in a position to be even more competitive. "
Graylyn Jones and Nadia Kechfe represented the Jayhawks in the diving well, placing first and second, respectively.
Both Denver and Missouri State brought their men's teams who helped contribute to a dramatic finish in the first day of competition. In the final race of the evening, Denver's relay team consisting of Dylan Bunch, Ray Bornman, Luke Williams and Kyle Robrock, swam their way into the Robinson Natatorium pool records. Swimming the 800-yard freestyle relay in 6:43.18 the squad knocked off Nebraska's previous pool record of 6:43.41 that had been standing since 1984.
At the end of Friday's competition, Denver's women lead Missouri State, 141-41, and the Denver men lead Missouri State, 131-49. The meet continues Saturday, Oct. 24 at noon in Robinson Natatorium.
Missouri State
The Missouri State men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams finished up the first day of action at the Kansas Double Dual in Robinson Natatorium on Friday, Oct. 23.
Several swimmers picked up season-best times on both Bears’ teams, as the MSU men’s squad trails Denver 131-49, while the women’s squad is behind both Kansas (150-32) and Denver (141-41) after the opening day of races.
Senior Uvis Kalnins led the way on the men’s side, earning a victory in the 200-yard individual medley in a time of 1 minute, 51.37 seconds. He also picked up a runner-up finish in the 50 freestyle (21.04) and took third by less than a second in the 200 free (1:39.84).
MSU freshman Minki Kang topped his collegiate best in the 1000 free by touching the wall at 9:27.96 for a runner-up showing in the event. Freshman Artur Osvath earned a second-place showing in the 100 breaststroke (57.33) and the Bears’ 200 medley relay squad of Bryce Blattner, Isaac Springer, Osvath and Will Brand also placed second in a time of 1:33.58.
Finishing with top times this season after the first day of races on the Bears’ men’s team included Springer and Cwiek. Springer set his best time this year in the 100 breast (57.64), while Cwiek topped his 2015-16 season mark in the 200 butterfly (1:56.07) and earned fourth place in the 200 free (1:42.24).
Freshman Bryce Blattner also had a top performance for the Bears Friday, placing third in the 100 backstroke by touching in at 52.07.
Missouri State’s Dora Kiss had one of the top first-day showings for the Bears’ women’s team. The senior earned a season-best time in the 1000 free (10:19.73) and also took second in the 200 fly (2:04.06).
Seven more MSU women’s swimmers set top times for the year Friday.
Junior Lauren Pavel led the Bears in the 100 breast behind her season-best 1:05.98 finish to earn fourth place, while senior Olivia Gean joined her with a time of 1:09.24. Both Briana Horozewski (1:00.34) and Emily Chesser (1:00.69) in the 100 back, Anna Bump (24.87) in the 50 free, Heather Snyder in the 1000 free (10:41.73) and Josie Pearson in the 200 fly (2:06.32) all topped their fastest marks on the year.
Other notables for the Bears included seventh-place showings for Sydney Zupan in the 200 free, Loretta Stelnicki in the 100 back, and Hope Ernhart in the 50 free. Pearson also earned a top-five finish by taking fourth in the 200 IM.
Missouri State continues action at the Kansas Double Dual at 12 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24, at Robinson Natatorium on the campus of the University of Kansas.
