BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana swimming and diving swept the Big Ten Swimmer of the Week honors, and Liberty Clark captured her fourth Big Ten Freshman of the Week as the conference office announced its weekly awards Wednesday (Nov. 26) following midseason action.
Junior Miranda Grana earned her third Big Ten Swimmer of the Week award after winning three events at the Ohio State Invitational, including all three of her individual events as well as a sweep of the backstroke events. Grana swam a program record 49.98 in the 100-yard butterfly and a 49.89 in the 100-yard backstroke to become the fifth woman to go sub-50 seconds in both events, joining Olympians Claire Curzan, Maggie MacNeil, Regan Smith and Gretchen Walsh. Her times in the 100 back, 100 fly and 200 back (1:49.06) all rank No. 3 nationally this season.
Senior Zalán Sárkány won the Big Ten Men’s Swimmer of the Week honor after setting the nation’s fastest times in the 500-yard freestyle (4:09.57) and 1,650-yard freestyle (14:23.85). Sárkány narrowly missed program record in those events but achieved the school standard in the 400-yard IM (3:39.73), finally beating the 11-year old record after tying it last season in a third-place finish.
Clark won five events at her first midseason meet. In the 50-yard freestyle, Clark set a program record (21.54) in a second-place performance as well as IU’s best-ever relay leadoff (21.61). In the 100-yard freestyle, the freshman broke the program record twice with an individual-event winning 46.87 before trimming it to a 46.83 in a relay leadoff. Her 200-yard freestyle performance earned “Arena Swim of the Week” honors from SwimSwam.com, as Clark’s 1:41.27 made her the 16th-fastest woman all-time and No. 6 American in the 17-18 age group.
Clark also split 45.87 as Indiana’s 400-yard medley relay anchor, becoming the 10th woman in NCAA history to split sub-46 seconds.
