Iowa State Third After Kansas Classic Day One

TOPEKA, Kan. – The Iowa State swimming and diving team (3-1, 1-0 Big 12) closed out day one of the Kansas Classic in third place. The Cyclones put up 190 points in the first day of the event, trailing second-place North Texas by 38 points, and Kansas leads the event, ahead of Iowa State by 115 points.

PRELIMINARY ROUND

In each of the three preliminary events, Iowa State was able to place a student-athlete in the 'A' heat. Silqi Luo was Iowa State's representative in the IM, while Laura Miksch and Mary Kate Luddy placed in the 50 and 500 free spots respectively. In addition, nine other swimmers advanced to the 'B' finals of their event, while five Cyclones advanced to non-scoring heats.

FINALS

The first relay of the evening, the 200 freestyle relay, featured a pair of Cyclone relay squads in the top eight, led by a fourth place finish of 1:33.92 by Laura Miksch, Harper Emswiler, Anna Andersen and Evan Hundley. The 500 freestyle finals featured fantastic comebacks by the Iowa State swimmers, as Jessi Storer and Haley Ruegemer charged to the front of the pack with five laps left, taking first and second in the heat, ninth and 10^th overall.

"This morning, I felt a little stiff," Ruegemer commented. "Tonight, I felt a little more confident. In the last 100, I saw [Kansas' Breonna Barker] and knew I needed to kick it into a different gear."

"I felt like Haley this morning, a little rough," Storer said. "I felt 100 percent better tonight than this morning, and it was nice to have Haley next to me because we race each other every day in practice."

In a similar fashion, Mary Kate Luddy maintained her pacing well, able to take second overall with a 4:54.93. The time was just outside the top-20 times in school history.

"It was so awesome for me to see [Haley and Jessi] win," senior swimmer Mary Kate Luddy said. "I usually don't like to look at the board before I swim, but I couldn't help but to cheer for them. It really got me excited to race that much more."

More excitement awaited when Iowa State took to the 200 IM. Emma Ruehle had come in 13^th during preliminary competition, but by shaving over two seconds off her prelims time in the finals, she finished second in the heat to secure 10^th place overall. Luo swam for the Cyclones in the 'A' final, using a personal-best time of 2:05.18 to place sixth overall. The 50 freestyle didn't disappoint for Iowa State, with Miksch taking fifth overall with a time of 23.30 in the finals heat. Emswiler (12^th), Andersen (13^th) and Hundley (16^th) also scored for the Cyclones.

In the final relay of the night, the leading 400 medley relay team of Emswiler, Martha Haas, Luddy and Andersen took fourth overall with a 3:46.88. Two other relays scored, capping the 190 point day for the Cyclones.

"I thought we really raced well tonight," head coach Duane Sorenson said following tonight's session. "I'm pleased with the way our women competed. This is a really important meet, and I'm really happy with where we're at as team. We have things to work on, but it's a long season and we'll keep working on it."

The swimmers will continue tomorrow with the 100 fly, 400 IM, 200 free, 100 back and 100 breast as the individual events.

MIZZOU INVITATIONAL

The divers were in Columbia, Missouri for day two of the Mizzou Invite. In preliminary competition, Dana Liva finished in 10^th to move onto the night's finals by posting a 254.55. Sydney Ronald barely missed the window, ending her day in 15^th with a 237.40. Katherine Mueller finished the day in 27^th out of 35 total competitors, scoring 207.85. In the finals, Liva jumped up a spot into ninth, scoring 262.10.

"I thought we had solid performances today in prelims and saw some good improvements on details we have been emphasizing in practice," said diving coach Jeff Warrick. "I was very happy with Dana's performance in finals. She looked very composed and improved her score from prelims, just off of the zone qualifying mark.

UP NEXT

The swimmers will battle it out throughout the weekend in the Kansas Classic. The divers take on the final day of the Mizzou Invite on the platform tomorrow.

Players Mentioned

Anna Andersen

Harper Emswiler

Harper Emswiler

Martha Haas

Evan Hundley

Evan Hundley

Dana Liva

Mary Kate Luddy

Mary Kate Luddy

Silqi Luo

Silqi Luo

Laura Miksch

Laura Miksch

Katherine Mueller

Sydney Ronald

Haley Ruegemer

Haley Ruegemer

Emma Ruehle

Jessi Storer

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