Liva Qualifies For Zones, Cyclones Fall To Nebraska

Friday, October 26

Ames, Iowa

5:00 PM

Iowa State

115

184

Nebraska

ISU R-SO Dana Liva competing in the W Platform Diving at the 2018 Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championship at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center on Saturday, February 24, 2018.

Photo by: Liz Parke

Liva Qualifies For Zones, Cyclones Fall To Nebraska

10.26.2018 | Swimming and Diving

Results

AMES, Iowa – The Iowa State Cyclones (2-1) were edged out 115-184 by Nebraska (3-0) on Friday night. The Cyclones won both relays, and Dana Liva post Zone-qualifying scores on both boards, but the effort fell just short.

Iowa State started the meet well, the quartet of Emily Haan, Martha Haas, Elynn Tan and Anna Andersen won the 200 medley relay with a 1:44.32. The squad won by over a second, securing a Cyclone victory. Andersen and Emma Ruehle took second and third in the 200 free.

Martha Haas (1:04.52) swam her fastest time of the season to just out-touch Nebraska by two-tenths in the 100 breast. Elynn Tan won the 50 free to put the score at 73-58 at the first diving break.

Following the break, Andersen won the 100 free to keep up the Cyclones' strong performance in sprint freestyle events. Haan took second in the 200 back with a 2:06.94, the fastest time by a Cyclone this season. Haas (2:24.71) and Lehr Thorson (2:28.17) finished third and fourth in the 200 breast, Bryn Ericksen was not far behind in sixth (2:28.77). Lucia Rizzo (5:08.91) finished third in the 500 free, and Elynn Tan (56.68) finished in second in the 100 fly, just four-tenths off the leader. The Cyclones trailed 153-92 heading into the final diving break.

In the diving well, Dana Liva secured a trip down to Austin for the 2018 Zone Diving Championships in March. Her personal-best score of 285.85 bested the zone-qualifying score of 280. On one-meter, Liva again posted a qualifying score of 273.30, over the 265 mark. She finished fourth on three-meter and third on one-meter. Sydney Ronald finished with a 255.25 on one-meter, good for fifth place.

"I was just trying to have fun and make it like a practice," Liva said following the meet. "We did meet prep this week, so making those dives helped me make the dives count tonight."

"It was good to see her qualify on both boards," diving coach Jeff Warrick said. "It was definitely an improvement from last week, and I think she rose up to the competition."

Rizzo was touched out by Nebraska, her time of 2:08.66 just .04 off the leader. The Cyclones won the 400 free relay with the group of Tan, Andersen, Hundley and Haan. Their time of 3:30.76 was well under the Cyclones' season-best mark set last weekend.

"I'm very happy with the way our women raced tonight," head coach Duane Sorenson said. "The nice thing is as well as we swam, we can do a lot of things to be even better. Our distance group has had a lot of little injuries that they are dealing with, so we knew going in a little weak, but Lucia Rizzo did a nice job swimming the 500."

UP NEXT

The Cyclones travel to Dallas next weekend for a Friday night meet against Big 12 opponent TCU and the host SMU. The meet is set for 6 p.m. Follow the team on Twitter (@CycloneSD) or on Facebook at facebook.com/cyclonesd for in-game updates, post-meet recaps and results throughout the season.