By Carter Melrose
The men’s swimming and diving championship is upon us. From today through Saturday in Columbus, Ohio, the Big Ten’s best swimmers will be thrust against each other in what should be a very entertaining meet.
If Iowa has superstars, they are sophomores Kenneth Mende and Jack Smith and junior Jerzy Twarowski, who all qualified for the 2016 NCAA Championship.This season, Smith will race in his best event, the 50 freestyle. He is touted as being among the top 13 in that event.
Mende this season has raced to NCAA standards in both the 100 and 200 backstroke. He is ranked 12th in the Big Ten in the 100 and fifth in the 200 which could realistically be one of the highest finishing spots for the Hawkeyes.
Twarowski, on the other hand, has also raced to NCAA standards this season, in the 100 and 200 butterfly. He ranks top 12 in both, but he more looks forward to his favorite event, the 200 fly.
“Two-hundred-fly is my best event, and it’s been that way since I was little, swimming in Poland,” he said. “But the 100 fly, I am getting better and better at with age.”
On the diving side, sophomore Will Brenner would like some sweet redemption in the 1-meter. Last year, as a freshman Brenner barely missed the A-finals, finishing ninth in the preliminaries. He went on to take third in the B-finals, or 11th among the field.
“Little disappointing, but I know what I did wrong,” he said. “I just didn’t have my head in the right place.”
Another diver to look for came straight from the mouth of his teammate Brenner:
“Brandis Heffner is doing amazing stuff right now; he is honestly the best I’ve seen since I’ve been here,” Brenner said.
Heffner advanced last year to the NCAA Zone D Diving Championships, where he placed 14th in the 3 meter and 18th in the 1 meter. Heffner also holds the fifth-best Iowa 3-meter performance of all-time and the sixth-best Iowa 1-meter performance.
“For the team, [this] is the most important meet of the year,” Twarowski said. “It isn’t like a normal meet; we are facing every single team in the conference. Everyone is ready to race their best times.”
