Badgers cap successful summer
August 23, 2017 | Men's Swimming & Diving, Women's Swimming & Diving
Runge and Hutchins shine in international competitions
MADISON, Wis. — Although the UW Natatorium pool hasn't held a meet this summer, plenty of Badgers have stayed busy, competing and succeeding in pools outside of Madison. Continue reading to see what the Wisconsin swimming and diving team has been up to this summer.
FINA World Championships
Cierra Runge was good as gold once again.
The Wisconsin freestyler put her United States teammates in position to claim another gold medal in the women's 800-meter freestyle relay on July 27th at the 2017 FINA World Championships in Budapest.
Runge swam the second leg of the Americans' entry in the morning preliminary session, clocking a split of 1 minute, 59.17 seconds that help put Team USA into the final with a third-place finish in an overall time of 7:53.73.
The quartet of Leah Smith, Mallory Comerford, Melanie Margalis and Katie Ledecky brought things home in the final with a swim of 7:43.39 that was enough to win the gold by more than 1.5 seconds over runner-up China (7:44.96). Australia took the bronze in 7:48.51.
With the victory, the U.S. has claimed seven of the last eight world championships titles in the 800 free relay.
Impressively, Runge has been part of Team USA's title-winning efforts in each of the last three years. She also won gold medals in the 800 free relay at the 2015 World Championships and last summer's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Runge was an All-American in her first season at Wisconsin in 2016-17 by placing seventh as part of the Badgers' entry in the 400-yard freestyle relay, an event in which she also helped the Badgers claim a Big Ten title while breaking the conference record with a time of 3:12.91.
In all, Runge set six school records in her first year as a Badger.
She went on to take fourth in the 800-meter free, fifth in the 400 free and sixth in the 200 free at the 2017 USA Swimming National Championships in June.
World University Games
Matt Hutchins doesn't plan of getting out of the pool anytime soon, and with good reason.
The outgoing senior swam with the New Zealand national team at the World University Games in Taipei from Aug. 20-23.
Hutchins qualified for the 400-meter freestyle final by placing third in his qualifying heat with a time of 3:49.93 and went on to take seventh in the final with a time of 3:53.00. He wrapped up his appearance at the World University Games by competing in the prelims of the 200 free and 800 free.
Hutchins will return to the Wisconsin swimming team as a volunteer coach this Fall.
U.S. Open
Speaking of Hutchins — the New Zealand product's 52 points helped to lift the Wisconsin Aquatics combined team to a third place finish at the U.S. Open.
Hutchins excelled in multiple freestyle events, claiming third-place finishes in the 200 and 800 free. The highlight of Hutchins' showing was his win in the 400 freestyle, finishing with a time of 3:48.25, besting the second-place finisher by nearly four seconds.
However, Hutchins was not alone in contributing to Wisconsin Aquatics' third-place finish. Marissa Berg (16 points), Abby Jagdfeld (13), Jess Unicomb (9) and Beata Nelson (7) each delivered strong individual performances.
If the individual performances were not enough, the relay performances bolstered Wisconsin Aquatics' showing at the U.S. Open. The women's 800-meter freestyle relay team (Emmy Sehmann, Unicomb, Maddi Tew and Jagdfeld) delivered a second-place finish. The men's 800 freestyle relay team (Hutchins, Ryan Stack, Eric Geunes and Anthony Lyons) also placed second, falling to California Aquatics by less than a second.
Rounding out the relays, the women's 400 medley relay finished third and the men's 400 free relay placed fourth.
USA Diving Championships
Kevin Pomeroy and Ethan O'Neill earned trips to the USA Diving Championships in Columbus, Ohio, following stellar performances at the USA Diving Championships zone meet. Both Badgers competed and shined on the 10-meter platform.
At the zone meet, Pomeroy finished second overall with a score of 266.40. O'Neill followed closely behind, scoring 248.75 and finishing third.
At the championship meet, Pomeroy, who is heading into his sophomore year, earned a trip to the semifinal round and finished with a score of 234.20.
Players Mentioned
