As the NCAA swimming season nears its final events, the Nebraska swim team is sending junior standout Gena Jorgenson to the NCAA Swimming Championships. Jorgenson qualified with B standards in the 500 freestyle, the 400 IM, and the 1650 freestyle. Last season, Jorgenson was also the lone NCAA Husker qualifier, making two events.
“She's put in some great work, and has great attitude, and she's always a great competitor,” Nebraska swimming head coach Pablo Morales said. “We're certainly very optimistic, as we always are, when it comes time for Jenna to get on the blocks and race in the highest pressure moments. She has a knack for really performing in those high-pressure moments where more and more is at stake.”
Jorgenson’s achievement tops off a successful season for the Huskers, who set school records in the 800 freestyle, the 200 IM, and the 100 butterfly, as well as several individual records. The team also achieved a high percentage of personal best times through the first half of the season, earning them recognition from Swim Cloud.
“To hit personal best during the season is certainly something that is very positive,” Morales said. “I don't think we go into any meets with the idea that we will be achieving personal best in season, usually that comes at the end of the season in the peak performance meet at the end… Sometimes the combination of hard training and the competition level and the facility allows for some really fast performances in season when you don't necessarily expect it.”
One of the highlights for the Huskers was winning the Hawkeye Invitational in November. The meet featured competition from San Diego State, Arkansas, Kansas and Illinois.
Additionally, the Huskers went 8-2 in dual meets. Morales said one of the standout moments of the year was securing a dual victory in Kansas.
“That has always been a huge challenge for us,” Morales said. “They protect their home pool extremely well, and the pool is kind of nuanced so that visitors usually have a tough time there. It was one of our goals to, without sacrificing our training, to get on a bus, drive to Lawrence, get off the bus, get into the pool and win the meet. Usually, most teams travel the day before and they get a night there, but if we can, we travel the same day just to challenge the team, and they rose to the occasion and had a really good performance.”
While the Huskers were successful in November’s Hawkeye Invitational, the Big Ten Conference Championships were more difficult than years past with the addition of four new schools to the league, with Morales saying UCLA and USC especially are highly ranked nationally.
“It’s a healthy conference for both swimming and diving,” Morales said. “To achieve scoring times, which means you qualified from the morning heat, you were able to get into the finals at night if you achieved one of the top 24 times in the conference. With USC and UCLA in the meet, it made scoring positions all the more at a premium.”
As for Jorgenson, Morales says she's “working hard” for the tournament.
“She really responds extremely well to (high-pressure moments),” Morales said. “Because of her work ethic and her preparation and her ability to get her best out of herself in any given competitive moment.”
The Huskers will lose five seniors: Maia Hall, Madison Lloyd, JoJo Randby, Caterina Bisiacchi and Sydney McCracken. McCracken was named this year’s Big Ten Conference Sportsmanship Honoree.
Morales said that the seniors and team captains created one of the strongest years for a strong culture and team dynamics.
“Individually, they've all had amazing contributions to our program,” Morales said, “But as a group, (they’ve been) just one of the best classes that we've had from the standpoint of supporting a very positive and high reaching standards of our program.”
Closing out the season are the NCAA Zone D Diving Championships, which take place on March 10 in Iowa City. NCAA diving qualifications are based on performance at Zone Championships. The Huskers have six divers competing in the championships, and Morales hopes Jorgensen will “have some company” at the NCAA National Championships.
The NCAA championships take place March 19-22 in Federal Way, Washington.