The Indiana swimming and diving teams participated in the 2024 Cream and Crimson exhibition that combined the men’s and women’s teams for an intrasquad match on Friday at Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatics Center.
Each year, the NCAA releases time standards for their swimming and diving championships. Two standards are released every year, with the “A Cut” qualifying standard representing an automatic qualification for the NCAA championships. Once invited to an individual event, swimmers can enter up to three other events in which they have achieved the “B Cut” provisional standard.
While the exhibition is not an official “bona fide” NCAA event, hitting these time standards indicates an excellent performance and puts the athletes in a strong position to compete for NCAA championship qualification.
Seventeen Hoosiers participated in swimming and diving at the 2024 Paris Olympics, and their brilliance in the pool was on full display in the exhibition.
The day began with the 200-yard medley, where Cream took both victories and jumped out to the early lead thanks in part to a trio of Olympians in seniors Kai Van Westering and Josh Matheny, and graduate student Tomer Frankel.
Next came fellow Olympians senior Mariah Denigan and junior Zalán Sárkány continuing Cream’s blazing start with wins in the 1000-yard freestyle. Team Crimson finally got into the win column as senior and 2024 Olympic silver medalist Anna Peplowski and Olympian Rafael Miroslaw won their respective 200-yard freestyle events, with Miroslaw posting an NCAA B Cut time of 1:34.27.
The teams were dead even in the next two events as graduate students Anna Freed and Gavin Wight claimed first in the 100-yard backstroke, followed by victories from Matheny and senior Brearna Crawford in the 100-yard breaststroke.
Head coach Ray Looze highlighted sophomores Ava Whitaker and Max Cahill as standouts of the day, and they each took victories for Cream and Crimson respectively in the 200-yard butterfly event, with Whitaker posting a blazing NCAA B Cut time of 1:58.50.
The 50-yard freestyle saw the next two NCAA B Cut times, as Cream’s junior Kristina Paegle posted a 22.57 and Crimson’s 2024 Olympic gold medalist senior Matt King put up a 19.66.
Paegle continued her impressive day with another B Cut time of 49.05 in the 100-yard freestyle, an event which saw Miroslaw and Frankel tie for first place on the men’s side.
The 200-yard backstroke was a sweep for Cream, as junior Alejandro Kincaid and sophomore Miranda Grana took victories. Grana posted a B Cut time of 1:54.48.
Crimson struck back with a pair of wins from Crawford and sophomore Toby Barnett in the 200-yard breaststroke, only for Cream to respond with a sweep in the 500-yard freestyle from Denigan and Sárkány.
The final two individual events were the 100-yard butterfly and 200-yard individual medley. The teams split the events, with Crimson picking up wins from Cahill and Barnett, and Cream earning victories from Grana and Freed.
The day closed with the 200-yard freestyle relay. Cream’s lineup of junior Chiok Sze Yeo, Paegle, freshman Adrianna Lojewski and senior Elyse Heiser won the women’s relay. King, Wight, Miroslaw and sophomore Max Lestina triumphed in the men’s relay for Crimson.
In the end, Cream defeated Crimson 286.5-233.5. Olympic dominance was the theme of the exhibition, but when asked after its conclusion, Looze emphasized the transition period for Olympians returning to NCAA competition and the need for them to get “back to reality.”
The men’s team will be back in action against the University of Texas on Nov. 1-2, and the women’s team will return to Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatics Center on Oct. 23 against the University of Notre Dame.
