Tennessee Sweeps Dual Meets Against Missouri, Virginia Tech

KNOXVILLE, Tennessee, January 11. THE University of Tennessee welcomed Virginia Tech and Missouri to the Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center on Saturday and swept all four of their dual meets against the two schools. Lindsay Gendron, Sean Lehane and Luke Percy each won multiple events for the Volunteers, while Mizzou’s Sam Tierney swept the breaststroke events for the Tigers. Mizzou’s Dani Barbiea and Loren Figueroa also emerged with two wins, as Barbiea touched first in the 50 free and 100 fly and Figueroa swept the diving events.

Tennessee Press Release

The men’s and women’s swimming and diving team swept Virginia Tech and Missouri in a double dual meet Saturday at Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center.

The UT women (7-0, 3-0 SEC), ranked 15th nationally won 9 of 16 events to cruise to a 192-108 victory over Virginia Tech and 192.5-106.5 against No. 21 Missouri.

After losing to Virginia Tech on the road this time a year ago, Tennessee’s men (5-2, 3-0) showed their improvement since then with a pair of top-15 wins. UT beat No. 7 Missouri 164-136 and No. 15 Virginia Tech 169-131.

“The themes on both our teams are about the same,” Tennessee head coach Matt Kredich said. “I thought we competed really well. We put races together well. We constructed races well. We applied skills in races really well. Through a long training period and a long meet, I thought we stayed concentrated really well.”

Senior Lindsay Gendron collected two individual victories in the 200-yard freestyle and the 200 individual medley to lead the way for Tennessee. Gendron was one of seven swimmers to collect a win for the UT women.

On the men’s side, sophomore Sean Lehane and freshman Luke Percy scored multi-win days. Lehane swept the 100 and 200 backstroke for the third time this season. It was Percy’s first meet to win multiple events.

The Tennessee men collected nine wins in the 16 events. The Vols swept both relays and then picked up individual wins from five athletes. Sophomore Sean Lehane and freshman Luke Percy both won two races each.
Once again, Lehane provided two Tennessee wins in the backstroke. He won the 100 race for the fourth time this season in 48.45. Later in the meet, he won the 200 backstroke in 1:44.84.

Jimmy Dagley also scored a strong day in the 200 backstroke. He swam a career-best time of 1:47.81 en route to taking fourth.

Percy, the Vol freshman from Australia, also picked up a pair of wins. He won the 50 freestyle in 20.36 and the 100 freestyle in 44.56.

“He’s made some significant changes in the way he swims, and that’s a risk for someone who’s been successful at the level he has,” Kredich said. “I think he’s seeing some of those changes starting to pay off. I think he’s really just scratching the surface of what he had do, and I think he’s starting to realize that.”

Led by Percy, Tennessee took the top three finishes in the 50 freestyle. Oystein Hetland was second (20.53) and Tillman was third (20.60).

Sam Rairden won the 100 butterfly in a season-best time of 48.05. The Vols’ versatile star also swam the 200 butterfly for the first time in his collegiate career, placing third in 1:50.91.

“We have a fairly significant hole in the 200 fly, and he thought he could win the race,” Kredich said. “It’s not one of his best events, but he’s a great flier obviously. He volunteered to swim that. He gave it a shot and it didn’t go as planned. I’m impressed with him getting in there and getting a win.”

Junior Tristan Slater won the 200 IM for the third time this season in 1:50.65. Lehane was not far behind in third.

The Vols picked up their first win of the day in the first event of the afternoon. The team of Sam Rairden, Renato Prono, Oystein Hetland and Luke Percy won the 200 medley relay in 1:28.67.

Tennessee closed the day with a relay victory as well. Percy, Tillman, Lehane and Rairden won the 400 freestyle relay in 2:59.15, assuring the close win over Missouri.

In other results, Slater placed fourth in the 200 freestyle (1:40.67) and Gustav Aberg Ledjstrom was sixth (1:41.18).

Sam Peterson was Tennessee’s top finisher in the 1,000 freestyle, placing fourth in 9:30.41.

Renato Prono placed third in the 100 breaststroke (55.90), followed closely by Ross Dibblin (56.16). In the 200 breaststroke, Dibblin took third (2:03.04) and Tristan Slater fourth (2:03.39).

In total, the Tennessee women collected nine event victories and picked up major points by having multiple swimmers finish well in races.

Tennessee kicked off the meet by winning a relay that came down to the wire. The team of Christina Leander, Molly Hannis, Harper Bruens and Kate McNeilis finished the 200 medley relay in 1:41.15, just 17 hundredths of a second ahead of Missouri’s A team. From there, Tennessee started pulling away.

Lindsay Gendron kept up her winning ways in the 200 freestyle, placing first in a time of 1:47.96. Her time was the fastest in the field by more than three seconds and was good enough for her sixth win in the race this season.

Near the end of the meet, Gendron won again in the 200 IM with a time of 2:02.96.

In her third event, Gendron (53.91) was second in the 100 butterfly. Heather Lundstrom (55.80) took third.

“The 100 fly has always been Lindsay’s favorite event. This may be the last meet where we have some choices of where to put her. Our next two dual meets are really high level competition and we might not be able to put her in that. We’re still trying to find a third event for a lot of people at the conference meet.”

Hannis, as usual, won the 100 breaststroke by more than a second in 1:00.79. Outside of the medley relay, that was her only breaststroke event of the afternoon. Instead of the 200 breaststroke, she competed in the 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly.

Johnson earned a victory in the 100 freestyle in 50.25. She also placed second in the 200 freestyle in 1:51.35, an event she has started competing in occasionally this year after mainly focusing on the 50 and 100 freestyle and 100 butterfly as a freshman.

“It’s really fun, actually,” Johnson said. “I feel like with the training, I can handle a lot of different things. I feel like I’ve had the best endurance I’ve ever had.”

Senior Lauren Solernou won the 100 backstroke (55.02) in her first competition since Oct. 24.

Tennessee took four of the top five positions in the 200 butterfly. Freshman Heather Lundstrom won for the fourth time this season, winning in 2:00.03. Michelle Cefal, Madeline Tegner and Patricia Forrester placed third through fifth.

UT also took four of five spots in the 200 backstroke. Madison Hahn led the way with the win in 1:59.89 and Anna DeMonte was just behind in 1:59.91. Lauren Driscoll was fourth (2:01.33) and Christina Leander was fifth (2:04.88).

Mary Griffith collected her first win this season, taking first in the 500 freestyle in 4:57.28.

Madeline Tegner was Tennessee’s top finisher in the 1,000 freestyle, placing second in 10:17.23, followed by freshman teammate Morgan Dickson (10:20.15).

Tennessee did not have a winner in the 50 freestyle but took second through fourth: Cherelle Thompson (23.49), Harper Bruens (23.57) and Kate McNeilis (23.72).

Missouri Women’s Press Release

Juniors Loren Figueroa and Danielle Barbiea each won two events in Mizzou’s double dual against No. 15 and Virginia Tech Saturday at the Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center in Knoxville, Tenn.

The Tigers (3-4, 0-3 SEC) defeated the Hokies 163-137 and fell to the Lady Vols 192.5-106.5.

Figueroa swept both diving springboard events with wins on the 1-meter and 3-meter. She started the day with a top finish on the 1-meter with a score of 303.00. Figueroa then posted a season best tally of 319.85 on the 3-meter to earn top honors on the event.

Also a winner of two events, Barbiea placed first in both the 50 free and 100 fly. The junior swam a time of 23.43 to win the 50 free, just 0.06 ahead of Tennessee’s Cherelle Thompson, who took second. Barbiea also claimed first in the 100 fly in a time of 53.57.

Mizzou started the meet with a second-place showing in the 200 medley relay. The Tiger `A’ team of junior Emily Doucette, freshman Katharine Ross and sophomore Anna Patterson clocked a time of 1:41.32, just 0.17 behind first-place Tennessee.

Patterson added a trio of individual second-place finishes to her day. She tied Tennessee’s Faith Johnson for second in the 200 free after a swim of 1:51.35 and recorded a time of 2:05.07 in the 200 fly to take runner-up honors. Additionally, she took second in the 100 free in 51.33.

Ross earned second in both breast events, as she went 1:02.44 in the 100 breast and 2:17.54 in the 200 breast. Sophomore Lauren Stoeckle placed behind Ross in the 200 breast with a time of 2:19.11 for third.

The Tigers also earned third-place finishes in both backstroke events. Doucette took third in the 100 back with a time of 56.40, while sophomore Madison Bridges was third in the 200 back in 2:01.33.
Missouri returns to the pool on Saturday, Jan. 18 when the team travels to Iowa City, Iowa to face Illinois, Indiana and Iowa at 11 a.m.

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