Well, ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to give the unfortunate news that things are on the morbid side in the wonderful world of Iowa Olympic Sports. All of the fall sports are officially over, and the winter sports have yet to gain a full head of steam.
Apologies for not posting this last week — there wasn’t a heck of a lot going on, but we’ll play catchup here.
Volleyball
After starting off the season strong and fielding a competitive squad on a regular basis, head coach Bond Shymansky’s Hawkeyes hit a wall in November, going 2-6 in the season’s final month and missing out on the NCAA Tournament, which begins Friday.
The Hawks faced some of the Big Ten’s best in the past 10 days, dropping matches to No. 1 Nebraska, No. 3 Wisconsin, and No. 14 Michigan State. Nebraska won 3-0, while the Badgers and Sparty disposed of the Hawkeyes in four sets.
Iowa finished the season ninth in the conference with a 19-13 mark overall and a 9-11 record in Big Ten play. The 19 wins are the highest total for the Hawkeyes since 1994 (!!), when Iowa went 24-8.
For some reason, Purdue was the last of eight Big Ten squads selected for the NCAA Tournament despite finishing 10th in the league and one game behind the Hawkeyes in Big Ten play and overall record. The Boilermakers and Hawkeyes split the season series, so, yeah.
All in all, a solid season for the Hawkeyes in Shymansky’s third year at the helm of the program. There’s reason to be hopeful for Iowa volleyball moving forward, everyone.
Swimming and Diving
This is kind of old by now — apologies — but the Hawks competed at the Ohio State Invitational Nov. 18-20. The Hawkeye men and women both took fifth at the meet, totaling 10 top-10 finishes and three NCAA B-cut times.
Senior Emma Sougstad posted a time of 2:11.84 in the 200 breast, good for a B-cut and fifth place overall finish at the meet. Tereysa Lehnertz did the same in the 200 fly with a time of 1:59.04. The best men’s finish was in the 200 free relay, with Matt Kamin, Jack Smith, Will Scott, and Jackson Halsmer taking fifth with a 2:58.43, Iowa’s fastest time of the season.
The Hawkeye women are scheduled to return to competition Dec. 9 when they host Iowa State. The men have off until Jan. 12-13 when they head to South Bend, Indiana to take on Notre Dame and Illinois.