Iowa State University’s women’s swimming and diving team began the Hawkeye Invitational in Iowa City with notable relay results, steady diving scores, and two significant performances in the 200 breaststroke time trials. At the end of the first day, the Cyclones held eighth place after three events.
Head coach Matt Leach expressed satisfaction with his team’s start to the meet. “Tonight was a good steppingstone for us in our first session of a long week of racing, and each of our events were solid for us. I was looking at where we were last year, and our freshman and sophomores heavily dominated some of our relays tonight, so overall I was very pleased with the times that we posted,” Leach said.
In the 200 medley relay, Iowa State’s A-team—composed of Lili Neisser, Anja Peck, Kendall Mallers, and Grace Swoboda—finished 11th with a time of 1:42.38. The B-relay team followed closely behind at 1:43.03. Both teams started well and finished strong on their anchor legs. The C-relay placed inside the top 25 with a time of 1:45.29.
On the diving boards, Iowa State’s A-relay secured second place with a score of 286.80 points; the B-relay earned fifth place with 251.70 points.
In the 800 freestyle relay, Corinne Guist, Piper Hagen, Carlotta Gazzola, and Keirlyn Mullica swam for Iowa State’s A-relay and finished 12th at 7:28.71. Gazzola contributed a key third-leg split while Hagen continued her solid performance as an anchor.
After official events ended for the evening, Anja Peck swam a time trial in the 200 breaststroke and posted a time of 2:13.24—making her both the number two all-time performer at Iowa State and achieving the program’s third fastest time ever in this event. Freshman Matilde Geromin completed her swim in 2:16.27; this places her as Iowa State’s 14th best all-time performer in this event and fifth among freshmen.
Following these results, Iowa State sits eighth overall with 44 points heading into day two, trailing UConn but within reach of several other teams including Iowa, Kansas, and Illinois.
Competition resumes Wednesday morning with preliminaries starting at 10 a.m., followed by finals at 5 p.m., which will feature individual races such as the 500 freestyle, 200 individual medley (IM), and 50 freestyle.
