Blog
Northwestern Invitational Review Part One
AMES, Iowa- It is not often when second place can feel so good. In spite of finishing a distant second to hosts Northwestern at the TYR Invite over the weekend, Iowa State did what it needed to do in the competition.
The Cyclones were not taking this meet like any run of the mill meet. They knew that this was going to be a fast meet with fast swimmers and it was still going to be a fast meet with fast swimmers even if they weren't ready to go. ISU was outstanding in all six sessions, never phased by the clearly deeper Wildcats or the other four teams in the field. They were also not phased knowing that there would be no back up from the ISU divers in the team standings and they still beat Michigan State, who brought their divers, by 61 points.
The Cyclones swam very tough in the prelims sessions. Though you want to have something left for the finals session of the meet, you also don't want to be on the outside of the that championship heat. Of the 14 races that had a prelims-finals format, Iowa State was atop the standings sheet of eight of those races after the prelims. And of those eight, Iowa State held their own and won six of them.
Speaking of those six wins, four of them are property of Nan Liu. The only competitor in the field to cause Liu problems was Tiffany Wong of Northwestern. Wong beat Liu in the 50 free and in the four relays Liu competed in. In Liu's defense, freestyle is not her primary stroke and on two of the races it was Liu who led off to give Iowa State the lead and Wong had to anchor the 'Cats to a victory. It's a coin toss who the better competitor was on the weekend.
Liu was outstanding in the butterfly, leaving the competition fighting for second in all the races. She easily won the 50 butterfly, her closest competitor was fellow Cyclone Abby Glaser and she was almost half a second back. Her 100 fly prelim swim was arguably the best swim of any competitor, male or female, over the weekend. Right before her race, Hannah McCulley saw the pool record and asked me what the school record was. I responded "Nan's going to have to break the school record if she wants the pool record." Her 53.55 was over a second under the NCAA 'B' cut and was almost half a second under the 53.91 Norris Aquatics Center record. Lost in the shuffle, was the outstanding swim of Abby Glaser with a 55.51 in the finals to finish third, a new in-season best by almost a second.
On a final 100 fly note, I saw that Katarina Tour of Iowa earned a pool record of 55.06 at the Hawkeye Invitational. That knocked off the old Field House Pool record of 55.43 held by five-time All-American Karen Groth of Iowa State in 1983. It was by far one of the oldest records on the books in Iowa City and needed to last just three more months to become an eternal record when Iowa opens its new aquatics center next season. Groth was ISU's last All-American in the fly and ISU has only had three swimmers qualify for the NCAA Championships in the 100 fly since then. If Liu can continue to improve, those could both change.
In the backstroke it was more of the same from Liu. Liu didn't even wait for the individual event to post her NCAA 'B' cut in the 100 back as she got it in the 400 medley relay going 54.31 for the second-place Cyclones. Then in the 100 back, she crushed the field beating another fellow Cyclone, Dani Harris, by almost two seconds. Liu and Harris also went 1-2 in the 200 back with Liu posting another 'B' time going 1:58.94 in the event and Harris in second in 2:00.56.
Part Two will be posted tomorrow and will include information about Dani Harris, Jeli Nixt, distance swimmers and other Cyclones who stood out. We will also delve into a little about ISU's next meet on Dec. 5. Until next time though, Go Cyclones!
The Cyclones were not taking this meet like any run of the mill meet. They knew that this was going to be a fast meet with fast swimmers and it was still going to be a fast meet with fast swimmers even if they weren't ready to go. ISU was outstanding in all six sessions, never phased by the clearly deeper Wildcats or the other four teams in the field. They were also not phased knowing that there would be no back up from the ISU divers in the team standings and they still beat Michigan State, who brought their divers, by 61 points.
The Cyclones swam very tough in the prelims sessions. Though you want to have something left for the finals session of the meet, you also don't want to be on the outside of the that championship heat. Of the 14 races that had a prelims-finals format, Iowa State was atop the standings sheet of eight of those races after the prelims. And of those eight, Iowa State held their own and won six of them.
Speaking of those six wins, four of them are property of Nan Liu. The only competitor in the field to cause Liu problems was Tiffany Wong of Northwestern. Wong beat Liu in the 50 free and in the four relays Liu competed in. In Liu's defense, freestyle is not her primary stroke and on two of the races it was Liu who led off to give Iowa State the lead and Wong had to anchor the 'Cats to a victory. It's a coin toss who the better competitor was on the weekend.
Liu was outstanding in the butterfly, leaving the competition fighting for second in all the races. She easily won the 50 butterfly, her closest competitor was fellow Cyclone Abby Glaser and she was almost half a second back. Her 100 fly prelim swim was arguably the best swim of any competitor, male or female, over the weekend. Right before her race, Hannah McCulley saw the pool record and asked me what the school record was. I responded "Nan's going to have to break the school record if she wants the pool record." Her 53.55 was over a second under the NCAA 'B' cut and was almost half a second under the 53.91 Norris Aquatics Center record. Lost in the shuffle, was the outstanding swim of Abby Glaser with a 55.51 in the finals to finish third, a new in-season best by almost a second.
On a final 100 fly note, I saw that Katarina Tour of Iowa earned a pool record of 55.06 at the Hawkeye Invitational. That knocked off the old Field House Pool record of 55.43 held by five-time All-American Karen Groth of Iowa State in 1983. It was by far one of the oldest records on the books in Iowa City and needed to last just three more months to become an eternal record when Iowa opens its new aquatics center next season. Groth was ISU's last All-American in the fly and ISU has only had three swimmers qualify for the NCAA Championships in the 100 fly since then. If Liu can continue to improve, those could both change.
In the backstroke it was more of the same from Liu. Liu didn't even wait for the individual event to post her NCAA 'B' cut in the 100 back as she got it in the 400 medley relay going 54.31 for the second-place Cyclones. Then in the 100 back, she crushed the field beating another fellow Cyclone, Dani Harris, by almost two seconds. Liu and Harris also went 1-2 in the 200 back with Liu posting another 'B' time going 1:58.94 in the event and Harris in second in 2:00.56.
Part Two will be posted tomorrow and will include information about Dani Harris, Jeli Nixt, distance swimmers and other Cyclones who stood out. We will also delve into a little about ISU's next meet on Dec. 5. Until next time though, Go Cyclones!
