Olympic Spotlight: Five Silver Medals for Iowa Track and Field

It was another eventful week for Hawkeye sports, with a pair of conference championships and school records in multiple sports. We've got a ton to cover so let's dive right in.

Iowa track and field set three program records and earned five silver medals at last weekend's Big Ten Indoor Championships. The women's team finished 3rd with 73 points, while the men finished 6th with 58 points.

Iowa's record-breaking began on Friday when Hawkeyes Paige Magee and Kalen Walker continued their incredible seasons with another program record each. Magee ran the 60m hurdles in 7.99, the first Hawkeye woman to break 8.00 in the event and Walker ran a 6.51 in the 60m that tied his school record. Magee's time is the 5th fastest in the country this year, while Walker's is 2nd-fastest.

Sean Smith continued the festivities with a massive 22.28m weight throw that set a new school record and earned him a silver medal. His throw came on the final throw of the day's final event and is the 13th-best in the country this year.

Other standout Friday performances included the women's distance medley team of Alli Bookin-Nosbisch, Aliyanna Dorn, Grace Bookin-Nosbisch, and Amber Aesoph who qualified for the finals with the 2nd-fastest time in school history, Grant Conway's 7.66 60m hurdle time (4th all-time), and Austin West who sat in 2nd in the men's Heptathlon after Day 1.

The Hawks followed up Friday's big performances with a solid Day 2. West finished the heptathlon in 2nd place to earn silver and points for the Hawkeyes, as did Chloe Larson in the women's 600m (1:28.66) and the women's 4x400 team of Magee, Audrey Biermann, Dorn, and Nylah Perry, who claimed silver with the 7th-best time in Iowa history (3:34.29)

Magee nearly claimed the Big Ten Title in the women's 60m hurdles, running an 8.01, just five-thousandths of a second behind the first-place finisher. Walker also finished just behind the eventual champion in the men's 60m race, earning a silver and All-Big Ten honors with a time of 6.61.

Gabby Cortez earned bronze in the women's 600m (1:29.22), as did Magee in the women's 200 (23.64), the men's 4x400m team of De’Andre Stapleton, Connor Belken, Josh Pugh, and Rivaldo Marshall (3:07.48), and Bookin-Nosbisch in the 800m (2:05.55).

It was hardly a disappointing weekend for the Hawkeyes, who earned a handful of medals and All-Conference honors, but both teams, in particular the women's side, felt they left some meat on the bone. The conference is highly competitive, and improving year over year, but a few of the athletes were disappointed in their follow-up performances after a huge Friday.

Still, Iowa put together a historic indoor season with more school records than any season in recent memory and still has a chance to finish the postseason with a bang at the NCAA Indoor Championships on March 8th. It's a testament to the quality of the group that they aren't satisfied with a 3rd place finish and I wouldn't put it past them to use that as motivation for the upcoming NCAA Championships and into the outdoor season, which starts in just a few weeks.

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Iowa swimming and diving took part in the Big Ten Championships last week and came away with multiple strong finishes and top-10 marks in school history. The Hawks set the tone early when the quartet of freshmen Jenna Kerr and Olivia Swalley, along with sophomores Sabina Kupcova, and Scarlet Martin finished the 800m freestyle relay in 7.12:57, 6th-fastest in school history.

The Hawks again saw strong results on the 3rd day of the meet. Kerr reached the B finals in the 200m freestyle and finished 16th overall in the event (1:49.07), Swalley qualified for the 400m IM C finals and finished 19th with the 2nd-best time in Iowa history (4:14.42). Martin reached the C finals of the 100m butterfly and finished 20th (54.11), and Kennedy Gilbertson reached the C finals of the 100m backstroke and earned a 20th place finish (54.16).

Wednesday's relay team came back for a huge finale on the final day of competition, putting together another strong performance, this time in the 400m freestyle relay. The group finished in 3:19.26, the 2nd-fastest time in school history, and placed eighth at the meet.

Geneva Pauly scored for the Hawks with a 13th-place finish in the platform dive, and Gilbertson, Kerr, and Martin earned three more top-20 finishes, Gilbertson in the 200m backstroke (1:57.65, 20th), Kerr in the 1,650m free (16:37.01, 19th), and Martin in the 200m butterfly (1:59.64, 19th).

As a team, Iowa scored over 100 more points than they did in the 2023 season, improving from 198 team points to 303. It was yet another sign that this program is continuing to rebuild and grow as a group. Many of the top performers continue to be underclassmen and the future looks bright for the revived program. The Hawks will be back in the water on March 11th at the NCAA Zone Diving Event and March 14th at the CSCAA National Invitational.

Iowa gymnastics finished 4th at the Big Ten Big Five meet last weekend, with Karina Munoz putting on a show for the Hawkeyes. Munoz posted a career-high 39.550 in the all-around to finish 3rd, including a career-best 9.950 on bars and a 9.900 on the beam, each good for 2nd place in the event.

The Hawks also received a strong performance from Illka Juk, who won the beam title with a 9.925. Iowa's 196.225 outscored #30 Maryland but finished behind #11 Michigan, #21 Illinois, and #22 Penn State.

Munoz has taken a huge step forward in her sophomore season, taking on the anchor spot and team leader role as the Hawkeyes battle through injuries to multiple All-Americans. The team continues to see growth in individual performances, especially from some of the younger GymHawks, and will no doubt look to continue their string of growth when they compete against Sacramento State next weekend (Sunday, March 3, 3:00 PM CT, hawkeyesports.com).

The Iowa women's golf team set a school record on Sunday, shooting a -8 (280) at the Westbrook Spring Invitational, and then turned around on Monday and broke the record again, shooting a -9 (279). Iowa's huge weekend also led to them crushing the 54-hole school record with the team shooting a -17 (847), 17 shots better than the previous school record of 864. Iowa finished ninth at the event.

Paula Miranda and Madison Dabagia each broke the school's individual 54-hole record, posting matching 209's at the tournament. The two tied for 17th at the tournament. Three other Hawks set career-best 54-hole scores at the event, Riley Lewis (215), Kaitlyn Hanna (216), and Ximena Benites (216).

The Hawks will look to continue their record-setting pace at next week's Momentum Transportation UNF Collegiate, which tees of on March 4th.

Iowa softball (6-5) split their four games last weekend, beating Jacksonville (5-10) twice, 5-3 and 4-2, before falling 8-2 to Harvard (4-1) and 6-1 to North Florida (9-5).

The Hawkeyes used a balanced attack to beat Jacksonville, with seven different Hawks tallying an RBI. Iowa was down 3-1 last in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader but used a 4-run 6th inning to propel themselves to a win. Grace Banes drove in a pair with an RBI single and she came around on a sac fly to give the Hawkeyes the lead.

Freshman Jena Young pushed an important insurance run home with an RBI single later in the inning. The Dolphins threatened late, loading the bases in the bottom of the 7th, but freshman Jaylee Ojo was able to work out of trouble and earn the save.

The second game was another nail-biter, with the score tied 1-1 heading into the 7th inning before the Iowa bats again came up clutch when it mattered most. Soo-Jin Berry pushed home the go-ahead run on an RBI single and the Hawks added two more on a sac fly and an error. The Dolphins again loaded the bases in the bottom of the 7th, but Haley Downe shut the door to claim victory for the Hawkeyes.

Sunday was a tougher day for the Hawks. Devin Bowman drove in Berry with an RBI triple and came around to give Iowa a 2-0 lead in the 2nd, but Harvard answered with four of their own and never looked back. They added two in the 4th and two more in the 6th and stymied the Iowa bats to take the 8-2 win.

The second game was a low-scoring affair for the first five innings, as Jalen Adams kept North Florida off the scoreboard. The Hawkeyes broke through in the 6th on a Rylie Moss RBI but three walks and two errors from the Hawkeyes in the bottom of the 6th paved the way for a 6-run inning for the Ospreys that ultimately proved too much to overcome.

It's still early in the year and, with a team that is asking for several freshmen to contribute, inconsistency is to be expected as the group adjusts to the college game. Still, every win counts in Iowa's quest for the NCAA tournament and they'll want to get back on the right track in short order. Iowa's midweek game against Wichita State was canceled so the Hawkeyes will next be on the diamond on March 8th when they take on CSU Bakersfield.

Iowa tennis (5-6) fell 4-3 to Oregon (8-3) last weekend, narrowly missing out on a victory before they open conference play this weekend. Iowa dropped the doubles point but bounced back during the singles portion of the match.

The Ducks claimed the first singles point on court 4, but Iowa earned points from Marisa Schmidt on court 2, Daianne Hayashida on court 1, and, after a loss on court 3, Vipasha Mehra won on court 6 to tie the match at three. The Hawkeyes dropped the final point in a tiebreaker on court five to just miss the match win.

Iowa's first conference match is scheduled for March 2nd against Indiana (6-7).