Tennessee Invitational

KNOXVILLE, Tennessee. November 22. THE final day of the Tennessee Invitational concluded with UT in first place. It also saw Vols make 34 NCAA qualifying standards and break nine school records. The Vols were dominant winning all 18 events in the meet.

"Today proved to be a great end to an amazing competition for our team," UT head men's swimming coach John Trembley said. "We accomplished what we set out to do."

To start off for the Big Orange, senior All-America Nolan Morrell improved his 200 backstroke time, winning with a new aquatic center record of 1:42.81; this time also puts Morrell at second on the all-time top times list at UT. Sophomore Michael Christy placed second with a time of 1:44.39 and freshman Anders Storvik placed third with a 1:44.90. All three Vols earned NCAA B-Cuts. Also placing were freshman Ricky Henehan in fourth and sophomore Chris Winchell in seventh.

After posting the fifth all-time best performance in the 200 freestyle Friday (1:32.79), senior Olympian Jonas Persson continued his record breaking performance. He won the 100 freestyle Saturday, breaking his own pool record with a 42.40 mark. That time also gives Persson the school record previously held by Ricky Busquets (42.64). The co-captain now leads the NCAA in the 50, 100 and 200 freestyle events. Sophomore Michael DeRocco finished second and earned a B-Cut with a time of 43.48. Also placing were senior All-America Jimmy Dabney in third, co-captain Barry Murphy in fourth, senior Scott Wherry in fifth and junior Jordan Walters in seventh.

In the mile freestyle, sophomore Carl Jones posted a 15:05.53 time, less than a second off the school record. Jones earned a B-Cut and set a pool record. Also meeting an NCAA qualifying standard was sophomore Geoff Sanders in second place with a 15:22.26. Sophomore Scott Friderichs finished sixth at 15:39.39, more than a minute faster than his last 1650 freestyle.

Sophomore Brad Craig continued to show improvement in the 200 breaststroke. Craig broke his own pool record with a first place 1:55.49. Sophomore Mattias Kahlin, freshman Jake Epperson and senior Stephen Fortney finished second, third and fourth respectively. Freshman Derek Paul finished eighth.

In the 200 butterfly, Vol senior Greg Houchin pulled out a victory at the wall, beating out Kentucky's Joe Retrum by .35 seconds. Houchin is now the Allan Jones Aquatic Center record-holder in the 200 fly. Sophomores Forrest Leary, Geoff Sanders and Patrick Beasley placed fourth, sixth and seventh respectively.

The 400 freestyle relay team of Morrell, Persson, Storvik and Dabney set a new school record with a first-place 2:52.62 finish.

The final score showed the Tennessee Volunteers winning with a score of 1180, the Hokies of Virginia Tech in second with 753 points and the Kentucky Wildcats in third with 571 points.

The Tennessee women were Led by victories from sophomore Aleksa Akerfelds and Alex Barsanti to finish the 2008 Tennessee Swimming Invitational in first-place at the Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center.

Tennessee won with 963 points, while Virginia Tech was second with 907 points. Kentucky finished third with 605.

Akerfelds won the 1650y free in an NCAA B qualifying effort of 16:30.16. An All-American in the mile last season, Akerfelds holds the Lady Vol record of 16:00.11 in the event. Senior Sarah McCall was fourth in 17:07.43.

Barsanti shattered her previous career-best en route to winning the 200y breast in a Lady Vol season-best 2:16.97. Barsanti just edged freshman Samara Gelb, who finished runner-up in 2:17.01.

"Alex Barsanti is really on a tear and Aleksa Akerfelds had a really good meet," head swimming coach Matt Kredich said. "I thought we were really tough today and that's what we were looking to do in this meet – to swim many events and not let fatigue change our attitude. I think we were really successful in doing that. I was really proud how we finished the meet."

Seniors Carly Mathes and Brittany Nauta placed 4-5 in the 100y free with times of 51.14 and 51.74, respectively. Virginia Tech's Sara Smith won the event in 49.98.

Freshman Jenny Connolly took third in the 200y back with a time of 2:01.02. Kelly deMarrais of Virginia Tech won the event in 1:58.46.

Freshman Tori Richmond placed third in a season-best time of 2:03.48 in the 200y fly, while Connolly and classmate Maddie Garrett finished 5-6 in 2:03.67 and 2:05.03, respectively.

Nauta, Mathes and Connolly combined with freshman Abbie Alton to finish second in the 400y free relay in a season-best time of 3:23.98. The Hokies won the relay in 3:20.94.

At the Allan Jones Diving Invitational, senior Staley McCartney, sophomore Jill Pierce and freshman Gabrielle Trudeau finished 3-4-5 in the platform competition.

McCartney's score of 225.70 is an NCAA Zone cut. Pierce scored 223.40, while Trudeau earned 222.40. Trudeau received a zone-qualifying mark of 264.00 in the prelim. Kentucky's Jessica Snowden won the platform with a score of 280.35. She swept all three diving events at the invitational.

"I was very pleased with the performance of all three of our divers on the platform," Diving coach Dave Parrington said. "Staley McCartney did a great job of coming back after missing on her second dive to score her second zone qualifying mark of the season. Gabbie did a great job in the afternoon, but one dive cost her at night. This was Jill's first platform competition using dives on the 10-meter and she had a good performance."

Special thanks to Tennessee for contributing this report.

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