Kansas swimmers top Iowa, Northern Iowa

Iowa City, Iowa — Kansas University’s swimming and diving team won a double-dual meet here Saturday, defeating Iowa, 131-130, and Northern Iowa, 180-90.

KU had eight first-place and four second-place finishes. Rebecca Zarazan was first in the 100-yard (57.24) and 200-yard butterflies (2:06.54), and Amy Gruber won the 100 and 200 freestyles with times of 52.01 and 1:52.24, respectively. Zarazan and Gruber also swam on the 400-yard medley relay (3:51.39) that took first place and included Whitney Sondall and Hannah Bakke.

Maegan Himes won the 400-yard individual medley (4:31.30), Miranda Isaac won the 200 breaststroke (2:23.32) and Bakke won the 100-yard breaststroke (1:05.56).

“Today, our program took a couple of big steps forward,” KU coach Clark Campbell said. “We had a great victory against a good Iowa team. I thought the entire team stepped forward today and contributed. The fact that our times are this fast this early in the year is pointing to great things the rest of the season.”

The Jayhawks will entertain Missouri at 2 p.m. Nov. 1.

KU runners 10th, 28th at NCAA Pre-Nationals

Cedar Falls, Iowa — Kansas University’s men’s and women’s cross country teams finished 10th and 28th, respectively, Saturday at the NCAA Pre-Nationals.

The Jayhawk men were led by freshman Benson Chesang, who placed 19th on the 8K course with a time of 24:03. Chris Jones finished 44th (24:30), Cameron Schwehr 68th (24:43), Dan Ferguson 106th (25:11) and Joshy Madathil 111th (25:13).

The KU men are ranked second in the Midwest region and 32nd in the nation.

“We were very excited about the effort we saw out of our men’s team today,” KU coach Stanley Redwine said. “We defeated teams that were ranked in front of us, both nationally and regionally.”

The Jayhawk women were paced by junior Megan Manthe, who placed 79th on the 6K course in 22:03. Laura Lavoie finished 107th in 22:22, Laura Major 146th (22:52), Lauren Brownrigg 165th (23:12) and Jessie Violand 177th (23:23).

“I’m a bit disappointed at where we finished as a team on the women’s side,” Redwine said. “We are not where we need to be right now.”

The Jayhawks will take one week off before competing at the Big 12 Championships Oct. 31 in Austin, Texas.