No. 42 — Ivy Martin, Women’s Swimming & Diving
Swimming is about as individual a sport as you can get, yet for Ivy Martin her individual performances also were all about the team. One look at the Big Ten record books and it is easy to see why Martin is on our list.
Simply put — she’s a champions champion. The 2014-15 season was her last in a Badgers uniform and she made the most out of it, winning titles in the SEVEN events she swam in the Big Ten championships on her way to winning Swimmer of the Championships. Those seven events were the 50-yard freestyle, 100 free, 100 butterfly, the 200 and 400 freestyles and 200 and 400 individual medleys.
That seven championship total is the most of any person in UW history, topping former greats like Carly Piper, Maggie Meyer and Rebecca Thompson.
Martin went on to place second in the 50-yard freestyle and was part of a fourth place finish in the 200-yard relay at the 2015 national championships. She also finished fourth in the 100-yard freestyle, while also being part of the sixth-place 400-yard freestyle relay team. That was a total of four All-American finishes for the senior.
Overall she won eight All-American honors in three years and was named the Swimmer of the Championships over the last two seasons in the Big Ten. Not too shabby for a Madison native.
Next up appears to be challenging for a national team spot for the next Olympic games.
She finished her career with a school record in these events:
50 Free: 21.57 (3/19/2015)
100 Free: 47.24 (3/21/2015)
100 Butterfly: 51.76 (2/20/2015)
200 Free Relay: 1:26.86 (3/19/2015)
400 Free Relay: 3:12.96 (2/21/2015)
Full 50 Greatest Badgers List:
No. 50 – Randy Jablonic
No. 49 – Alex Rigsby
No. 48 — Michael Lihrman
No. 47 — Howard “Cub” Buck
No. 46 — Don Davey
No. 45 — Pat O’Dea
No. 44 — Curtis Joseph
No. 43 — Dean Anderson
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
