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By Tork Mason
tork-mason@uiowa.edu
The Iowa women’s swimming and diving team took its Feb. 3 dual against Western Illinois as a chance to honor its three seniors, and was able to send Daniela Cubelic, Danielle Carty, and Veronica Rydze out in style.
The Hawkeyes can now take a brief and much-anticipated break before the Big Ten Championships following a resounding 133-60 victory over the Leathernecks. Iowa dominated the meet and won all 12 events.
The meet had a sprint lineup, with the 200- and 500-yard freestyles as the only individual events longer than 100 yards. Several of the swimmers said the format allows them to have more fun, but head coach Marc Long it’s still beneficial as they prepare for the Big Ten Championships.
“It gives you another opportunity to race,” he said. “It’s tough to simulate [the atmosphere] of having a competition. We like that, and it’s a set-up that helps you prepare for the conference meet.”
Long said the transition between the dual season and championship season has been going on for the past few weeks; there has been less focus on heavy training and more on recovery time to keep everyone fresh going forward.
The divers put together a strong performance as they swept the top four places in both the one- and three-meter events. Rydze — an all-American and the daughter of diving coach Bob Rydze — posted winning scores of 325.28 and 343.50 points, respectively.
She also completed a front-3.5 pike dive in the three-meter, which has a degree of difficulty rating of 3.1 — a rating that more than triples a diver’s score. Her father said it’s a dive that very few athletes in the country can complete.
“My goal is to have that dive ready for the NCAA qualifying meet [on March 8-10],” Bob Rydze said. “We want to dive well at Big Tens, but we want to dive even better at the qualifying meet.”
Bob Rydze said having the dive ready for the Big Ten Championships may not be entirely realistic, but that it would be something to consider trying if his daughter were to make it to the Big Ten finals next week.
Veronica Rydze said the key to the dive for her was to be aggressive with her hurdle and not to hesitate at any point.
The swimmers took the top four spots in the 200-yard freestyle, led by freshman Hannah Maher’s time of 1:55.23 minutes. Fellow freshman Becky Stoughton was given her second consecutive night of rest from distance races, but claimed victory in the 100-yard individual medley with a time of 58.76 seconds.
For Carty and Cubelic, the victories they collected in the 50-yard backstroke and 50-yard freestyle, respectively — as well as the 400-medley and 200-freestyle relays — all paled to what they called a reflective experience.
“It really makes you appreciate your teammates,” Cubelic said. “It’s a fun meet … there’s no pressure, you just come together as a team, and it’s all about the camaraderie at that point.”
Carty said the team’s focus is now entirely on the Big Ten Championships, which Iowa will host on Feb. 15-18.
“With this being our last dual meet, it’s really set in that our championship meet is in a week and a half,” she said. “And we’re really excited.”
