Swimming beats Iowa State, WBB ranked No. 25

For the eighth-straight time, the Iowa women’s swimming and diving team topped Iowa State.

It wasn’t much of a contest this season as the Hawkeyes won 12-of-16 events and outscored the Cyclones 175.5-125.5. Even more importantly, it gave Iowa the lead back in the Cy-Hawk series.

Meghan Lavelle took the 100 back in 54.43 and 200 back in 1:59.37. Kelsey Drake also won two events, taking the the 200 IM in 2:02.46 and 200 fly in a touch under two minutes.

Iowa’s performance at the meet led to a nice slew of Big Ten honors:

The Hawkeyes do not have another meet until Jan. 12 when they host Illinois.

Women’s basketball tops Arkansas Pine-Bluff, now ranked

Following wins over Iowa State and Arkansas Pine-Bluff, Iowa is FINALLY ranked, coming in a No. 25.

Here’s the AP and coaches polls:

It’s rather maddening that despite having an RPI inside the Top-25 most of the season, it took 10 wins for the Hawkeyes to get ranked. Currently Iowa sits at No. 20 in the nation and somehow is still projected as an 11 seed by CollegeSportsMadness.

They really don’t want to believe in Iowa, but alas.

I think it’s entirely likely the Hawkeyes end up as a top-5 seed if things play out well, but honestly only time will really tell. Up next? Northern Iowa, who comes in at 3-6, but has fought pretty well in its losses.

Iowa has to head to Cedar Falls for the matchup (Sunday, 2 p.m., ESPN3), where the Panthers are 2-1 this season. Northern Iowa took out Iowa State earlier this year and the McLeod Center is never an easy spot to play.

Following that will be a tilt against another in-state rival — Drake. Those will be Iowa’s last two games before Big Ten play starts.

The ride is just getting started, y’all.