Kentucky, South Carolina Split in Southeastern Conference Swimming Battle

Photo Courtesy: Griffin Scott

LEXINGTON, Kentucky, October 11. Kentucky and South Carolina opened up their Southeastern Conference swimming seasons with a pair of fun dual meets. Kentucky’s women scored a 177-123 win, while the South Carolina men came out on top, 207.5-92.5.

Kentucky Press Release

Senior swimmer Danielle Galyer excelled in the 2014-15 season-opener, leading the Kentucky women’s swimming and diving team to a 177-123 win over Southeastern Conference opponent South Carolina on Friday.

“We are really pleased with the women,” UK head coach Lars Jorgensen said. “First win in the SEC this year. I think that’s off to a great start. The men were a little short-handed today, but I thought we did as well as we could today.

“We knew it was going to be a tough matchup with both teams, the men’s and the women’s. We had some really outstanding swims on the women’s side … We’re going to have to swim a lot better next week against a really good Florida team. We’re just trying to get better every week, that’s the main goal.”

The UK men’s team dropped the team event by a score of 207.5-92.5.

Galyer won four events – three individual and one relay – on Friday, electrifying the vociferous crowd assembled in the Lancaster Aquatic Center.

Arguably Galyer’s best performance came in the women’s 200-yard backstroke as her time of 1:58.45 gave her the NCAA B Standard to begin the year.

Galyer’s final win of the day came in the grueling 200-yard individual medley as she swam a time of 2:04.03

She also won the women’s 100 backstroke in 55.18, and started the day on UK’s winning 200 medley relay. The team of Galyer, Crew, Myers & Wilson combined for a time of 1:42.98. Galyer swam the opening backstroke leg in 25.97.

Christina Bechtel also won three events on Friday.

“Christina Bechtel was great,” Jorgensen said. “She won all three of her events, and 53.18 is a really good time in the 100 fly right now. I was really happy with her 200 free as well. Danielle (Galyer) continues to improve as well. All best in-season times for her as well. Abbey Myers was also really good so our returning NCAA qualifiers right now are doing a great job.”

Bechtel’s winning 100 butterfly time of 53.18 was also faster that the NCAA B Standard in that event.

She won the 50 free with a time of 23.3 and the women’s 200-yd. freestyle in 1:49.53.

Abby Myers, like Bechtel, won a total of three events on Friday claiming the 200 fly in addition to being on both of UK’s victorious relay teams. Additionally her second-place 100 fly time of 54.48 was also a B Standard time.

The UK women’s team won the 400 freestyle relay to conclude the day with a time of 3:27.99 (Casey, Wilson, Kuethe, Myers).

Kendra Crew won the 200 breast stroke with a time of 1:06.97.

In one of the most exciting finishes of the day Kendal Casey won the 500-yd. free with a surge on the last lap. She finished with a time of 4:54.00 to edge South Carolina’s Victoria Mitchell by 0.33 seconds.

Two of the UK men won events on Friday. Zachary Zandona won the 200 backstroke with a time of 1:50.63.

Brandon Flynn won the 40-lap 1,000-yard Freestyle in 9:17.26.

None of the UK divers won their events (springboard), but they did contribute valuable points to the team scores especially on the women’s side.

“We had some good performances,” UK diving coach Ted Hautau said. “Steven Jou was much better this weekend. Levi Lindsey was a lot better, those guys are new. They have a lot to learn. Steven on the 1-meter event was much better mentally. On the 3-meter event he has some improving to do.

“Christa Cabot was good, but on both events she dropped a dive though. She’s way too seasoned a competitor to do that. Granted those are not her normal (NCAA Championship) dives, but it doesn’t matter. She’s way too seasoned of a competitor. Rebecca Hamperian did well, but she needs to do a lot better. She has the firepower to win that meet on both sides. I challenged her pretty hard that I want to see her embrace that and we will see what she does. I saw some good stuff, but we have a lot of work to do.”

South Carolina Press Release

The South Carolina swimming and diving team split its season opener with Kentucky on Friday at the Lancaster Aquatics Center, as the men posted a commanding 207.5-92.5 victory while the women fell 177-123.

The men’s team claimed 14 events, led by freshman Nils Wich-Glasen, who picked up three wins. Wich-Glasen won the 100 breaststroke (55.49), the 200 breaststroke (1:59.86) and the 200 IM (1:50.33). Sophomore Jonathan Boland, redshirt junior Kevin Leithold and junior Marwan El Kamash all added two wins apiece. Boland took first place in the 100 backstroke (49.94) and the 100 butterfly (50.59), Leithold picked up his wins in the 50 (20.68) and 100 (44.87) freestyle and El Kamash took the 200 (1:40.04) and 500 (4:34.28) freestyle events.

Boland, Wich-Glasen and Leithold teamed up with Michael Covert to win the 200 medley relay (1:30.69). South Carolina also won the 400 freestyle relay (3:01.68) with the team of El Kamash, Patrick McCrillis, Covert and Leithold.

Senior Victoria Mitchell, junior Ellen Johnson and freshman Meredith Vay all picked up wins for the women’s team. Mitchell won the 1000 freestyle with a new personal record of 9:57.92. Johnson took first place in the 100 breaststroke (1:03.99) and Vay notched her first collegiate win in the 100 freestyle (51.76).

The Gamecocks swept the diving events as seniors Cole Miller and Patti Kranz won on both the one-meter and three-meter.

Key Stat
The men’s team won 14 of 16 events to en route to a 115 point win over the Wildcats.

Notables
Men’s
• In his collegiate debut, Nils Wich-Glasen won all three of his individual events (100 breaststroke, 200 breaststroke and 200 IM)
• Jonathan Boland, Kevin Leithold and Marwan El Kamash all won two events apiece
• Freshman Bryce Kanaowicz picked up his first collegiate win in the 200 butterfly
• Kevin Leithold set a new personal record in the 50 freeestyle (20.68)
• Wich-Glasen’s time of 55.49 in the 100 breaststroke ranks 10th all-time in school history, his time of 1:59.86 ties Jared Kauffman’s record for fifth all-time in school history
• Tomas Peribonio placed third in the 1000 freestyle his collegiate debut, his time of 9:19.54 ranks seventh all-time in school history
• Freshman Bobby Bittner’s second-place time of 50.60 in the 100 butterfly was only .01 seconds slower than Boland’s winning time (50.59)
Women’s
• Meredith Vay picked up her first collegiate win, she also placed second in the 50 freestyle (23.63)
• Victoria Mitchell set a new personal record in the 100 freestyle (9:57.92), ranks third all-time in school history
• Caroline Petrone set a new personal record in the 50 freestyle (24.13)

Quotable
Head swimming Coach McGee Moody
“I’m extremely excited by our performance today. This is by far the best group effort – both men and women – that I’ve seen in my seven years coaching at South Carolina. Our men were dominant; they raced like they wanted it. Our women were impressive, they came up short it the score but they made an impression by the way raced today.”

Head diving coach Todd Sherritt
“We had a great meet. Patti [Patricia Kranz] beat a two-time All-American [Christa Cabot]. We’ve been working on being more consistent and that’s exactly what Patti did today. Cole [Miller] and Jordan [Gotro] both had no problems on either board. Julia [Vincent] and Lyle [Markman] both had good first meets and I think they’ll improve moving forward.”

Results: Kentucky vs. South Carolina

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