The 200-yard breaststroke and backstroke highlighted a valiant effort from Iowa State swimming and diving on the final day of the Big 12 Championships. 

Iowa State earned nine individual podium finishes in Saturday’s session but remained in fifth place on the team standings behind West Virginia. 

Texas secured the women’s Big 12 Championship for the tenth consecutive season.

Texas’s Kelly Pash was crowned swimmer of the meet after winning three individual events and being a part of four Texas relay championship relay teams. 

After being one and-a-half point behind West Virginia at the end of Friday’s session, Iowa State finished behind the host school by five points. The Cyclones finished with 487.5 team points. 

Iowa State’s pair of senior breaststrokers fought their way onto the podium again Saturday evening. 

Martha Haas took fourth in the 200-yard breaststroke and her teammate Lehr Thorson took fifth.

On Friday, Thorson took third in the 100-yard breaststroke and Haas was fourth. Haas’ time of 2:13.87 in the 200-breast is another NCAA “B” cut time for the fifth-year senior.  

Sophomore Alaina Breitbach swam for eighth in the 200-breaststroke to put three Cyclones on the podium for the first time of the weekend. The 200-yard breaststroke event propelled the Cyclones into fourth place on the team standings. 

Texas standout swimmer Anna Elendt was the top performer in the 200-breaststroke after she shattered another Big 12 record. Elendt won three individual events for the Longhorns. 

In the 200-yard backstroke, both Elizabeth Richardson and Emily Haan secured top-eight finishes. With a time of 1:58.60, Richardson placed fourth and earned her first All-Big 12 honor. Fifth year senior Emily Haan swam 2:00.47 and claimed the eighth spot on the conference podium. 

Only Cyclone took home a Big-12 medal for the first time of her career. Winter Craig swam a time of 2:02.45 in the 200-butterfly among a competitive field. Craig took sixth in a race where third through sixth place was decided by 1.11 seconds. 

In the mile, several Cyclones found ways to impress. Brinley Horras secured an All-Big 12 honor with were 16:54.04. The time was a three-second season best for Horras and with the performance, Horras became the first Cyclone to grab Big 12 honors in the 200, 500 and 1650-yard freestyle events in the same year. 

Maddy Rundell swam a 17:03.36 in the mile on Saturday. The time knocked 18.58 seconds off the junior’s personal best. Then, shortly after swimming the mile, Rundell swam another personal best time in the “C” finals of the 200-breaststroke. Rundell was third in that heat of the 200-breaststroke for Iowa State.

In platform diving, Iowa State’s Michelle Schlossmacher Smith took fourth. After taking seventh in the preliminaries, Iowa State’s team captain added 4.60 points with her performance in the finals. 

To finish the 2022 Big 12 Championships, Iowa State took fifth in the 400-yard freestyle relay. 

Iowa State was represented on the podium in five out of six individual events in Saturday’s session. 

In total, Iowa State raced or dove for 18 podium finishes over the four-day championship event.