RESULTS
IOWA CITY, Iowa -- Traveling to Iowa City without its divers due to injury and illness, Northwestern entered Saturday's meet against No. 21 Iowa with an automatic 32-point deficit. Not deterred, the Wildcats proceeded to dominate all over the pool to erase that margin and more for a 152-142 road victory over their ranked Big Ten foes.
NU now is 7-4 on the dual-meet season after the victory.
Northwestern began to erase its early deficit immediately with a dramatic come-from-behind win via a 1:43.12 in the 200 medley relay. Lacey Locke (Carmel, Ind./Carmel), Julianne Kurke (Atlanta, Ga./Parkview) and Julia Pratt (Vincennes, Ind./Vincennes Rivet) trailed after three legs thanks in most part to Iowa's breaststroke school record holder Emma Sougstad surging to the front. NU's freshman phenom sprinter Mary Warren (Hartland, Wis./Arrowhead) entered the water trailing by .48 of a second and erased the entire deficit with a sizzling 22.59 50 free split to out-touch Iowa's anchor by six one-hundredths of a second at the wall.
Iowa got the individual victory in the 1,000 freestyle followed by a host of Wildcats in second through fifth to mitigate the loss. Lauren Abruzzo (Denver, Colo./Kent Denver) was second for NU followed by Sydney Modeas (East Amherst, N.Y./Clarence) in third, Megan Purdy (Boulder City, Nev./Boulder City) in fourth and Ellen Anderson (Montgomery Village, Md./Gaithersburg) in fifth.
NU shook off the loss with a commanding 1-2-4 result in the 200 freestyle led by Annika Winsnes (Singapore/United World College) and her two-second margin of victory via a 1:50.69. Purdy came back just one event after taking fourth in the 1,000 to finish second in the 200 with a 1:52.43, holding off a late charge from Iowa's top entry. Anna Keane (Edmonds, Wash./Meadowdale) finished fourth for the 'Cats.
Locke went out hard and never looked back in winning the 100 back for Northwestern in a time of 55.63. Melissa Postoll (Acworth, Ga./Kennesaw Mountain) grabbed two big points with a fourth-place 57.52.
In the 100 breast, Sougstad took first with NU's Kurke coming in third behind another Iowa swimmer by just two one-hundredths of a second despite swimming the fastest final 25 yards in the pool. Katie Branch (Phoenix, Ariz./Horizon Honors) placed fourth for the Wildcats.
Sophomore Ellen Stello (Shorewood, Wis./Shorewood) led a 1-3-5 Northwestern finish in the 200 fly to grab big Wildcats' points. Stello won comfortably in 2:00.83 while Aja Malone (Acworth, Ga./Allatoona) was third and Emily Launer (DeKalb, Ill./Rosary) fifth.
Heading into the first diving break, Warren, Julia Pratt (Vincennes, Ind./Vincennes Rivet) and Winsnes went 1-3-4 in the 50 free to give NU another big chunk of points. Warren won in 23.31.
Northwestern's two-headed sprint monster struck again in the 100 free after the break, going 1-2 with both finishing nearly a full second ahead of the fastest Iowa swimmer. This time Winsnes won in 50.97 followed by Warren in second with a 51.17.
The Wildcats continued to build their momentum in the 200 back, dominating again with a 1-3-4 finish led by Locke in 1:59.97. Postoll took third and Keane fourth. Then, in the one stroke Iowa controlled in the meet, the Hawkeyes went 1-2 in the 200 breast to stop NU's winning streak, if only for a moment.
The 500 free played out nearly identically to the 1,000 free, with Iowa's Stoughton finishing first followed by four Wildcats. This time, Stello took second with Abruzzo third, Modeas in fourth and Purdy in fifth.
With the final diving break yet to come, Northwestern stepped on the gas to cushion its lead with a 1-2 finish in the 100 fly. Malone won in 55.84 following by Maddy Sims (Downers Grove, Ill./Downers Grove) in second with a 56.69 after Sims zoomed ahead of Iowa's top entry in the final 25 yards.
After Iowa was awarded its 16 points in the second diving event, Sougstad won her third event of the meet for the Hawkeyes by withstanding furious comeback attempts by Locke and Stello in the 200 IM. Locke touched in second with a 2:04.89 while Stello was third in 2:04.95, just behind Sougstad's 2:04.55.
That race cut NU's lead down to the narrowest of margins, 139-138, to set a dramatic stage for the final 400 free relay and the Wildcats' team of Warren, Keane, Malone and Winsnes. In that race, Iowa held a .53 of a second edge entering the final leg to create a frenzy in the pool. Swimming anchor for the 'Cats, Winsnes entered the water and cut her way through to a 49.83 split against a 52.68 split for Iowa's anchor to not only give Northwestern the win, but a 2.32-second margin of victory as well with a 3:24.48.
Northwestern returns to action in its final dual meet of the season when it faces Minnesota and Purdue in a two-day meet Friday and Saturday, Jan. 30-31, in Minneapolis.