Arizona Swimming and Diving Collects Five Wins in Multi-Team Dual Meet

Photo Credit: David Farr

TUCSON – The Arizona swimming and diving teams swept Missouri, Oregon State, Northern Arizona and New Mexico State on Friday afternoon in a multi-team meet at the Hillenbrand Aquatic Center.

Arizona Press Release

The Arizona men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams were dominant on a chilly Friday afternoon at Hillenbrand Aquatic Center as both teams swept dual meets against Missouri, Oregon State, Northern Arizona and New Mexico State in decisive fashion.

In the featured dual meets, both the men and women cruised to victories over Missouri.

The 11th-ranked men pulled the upset over the eighth-ranked Tigers, 160.50-101.50, while the 14th-ranked women defeated Missouri’s 16th-ranked squad in convincing fashion, 175.00-106.00.

Missouri was the only men’s opponent, but on the women’s side, Arizona also defeated Oregon State (184.00-97.00), NAU (191.00-102.00) and New Mexico State (198.00-89.00).

Overall, Arizona finished first in 20 of the 30 events.

On the women’s side, Bonnie Brandon, Emma Schoettmer, Elizabeth Pepper and Taylor Schick all won two events. Brandon, Schoettmer and Schick were also a part of Arizona’s victorious 200 medley relay team.

Brandon earned first place finishes in the 100 back (54.83) and the 200 back (1:58.02), Schoettmer won the 100 breast (1:01.93) and 200 breast (2:13.81), Pepper finished first in the 200 fly (2:00.78) and 100 fly (55.51) and Schick took home the 50 free (23.11) and 100 free (50.63).

On the men’s side it was Nick Hogsed, Kevin Cordes and Rasmus Skjaerpe taking home two events apiece.

Hogsed earned first place finishes in the 1,000 free (9:18.99) and 500 free (4:30.60), Cordes won the 100 breast (54.37) and 200 breast (1:59.79) and Skjaerpe was victorious in the 100 fly (49.53) and 200 IM (1:52.44).

Arizona swimming and diving is back in action when it hosts the Bay Area schools in three weeks. UA welcomes Stanford on Jan. 23 before hosting California on Jan. 24.

For continued coverage of Arizona Wildcat swimming and diving, visit ArizonaWildcats.com and be sure to follow the team on Twitter @ArizonaSwimming.

Missouri Press Release

The Mizzou men’s and women’s swimming teams opened 2015 at Arizona on Friday, Jan. 2, with the women going 3-1 in dual action and the men falling to host Arizona. The No. 16 women posted wins over New Mexico State (210-81), Northern Arizona (201-92) and Oregon State (185-77), while suffering a 175-106 loss to No. 14 Arizona. The men, ranked No. 8, competed in a true dual against the No. 11 Wildcats, falling 160.5-101.5.

On the men’s side, the Tigers were led sophomores Michael Chadwick and Carter Griffin, who both claimed two event wins. Chadwick swept the 100 free and 200 free races, while Griffin swept the 100 back and 200 back. For the women, freshman Erin Metzger-Seymour led the way with a win in the 200 free.

Chadwick, who ranks second nationally in the 100 free, won the event in 45.47, just 0.05 ahead of Bradley Tandy, who claimed the 50 free national title at the 2014 NCAA Championships. Chadwick’s second win of the meet came after he swam a 1:41.35 in the 200 free, where senior Andrew Phillips took third in 1:42.06 and sophomore Levi Hanks was fourth in 1:42.10.

In the backstroke events, Griffin outtouched Arizona’s Michael Meyer in both the 100 and 200. Griffin swam a 50.03 in the 100 back and a 1:47.63 in the 200 back, almost three second ahead of Meyer.

Metzger-Seymour bested 18 other swimmers to take top honors in the 200 free in a time of 1:51.90 for her first win in the event as a Tiger.

The women’s squad opened the meet with a second-place showing in the 200 medley relay, as the A team of freshman Hannah Stevens, junior Abby Duncan, senior Danielle Barbiea and freshman Rachel Hayden posted a time of 1:43.64.

In two of the more anticipated races of the day, Arizona’s Kevin Cordes, the two-time defending national champion in the 100 and 200 breast, outtouched senior Sam Tierney in both races. Tierney posted times of 55.38 and 2:04.12, respectively, in the events. Senior Igor Kozlovskij was just behind Tierney in the 200 breast to take third in 2:04.64.

Duncan claimed second in the women’s 100 breast with a time of 1:02.29 and third in the 200 breast in 2:16.52. Ross earned fourth-place finishes in both races.

The Tigers went two-three in both the men’s and women’s 200 fly. On the women’s side, freshman Sharli Brady took second in 2:03.31, ahead of Metzger-Seymour in 2:03.77. For the men, senior Mack Darragh placed second with a time of 1:50.19, just in front of junior Daniel Graviss’ swim of 1:50.30.

The 50 free again also saw Mizzou post second-place finishes on both the men’s and women’s side. Barbiea was second in the women’s race in 23.47, while junior Matthew Margritier tied for runner-up honors for the men in 20.56.

In the women’s 100 fly, Barbiea and Metzger-Seymour tied for second after swims of 55.74. Graviss also claimed second in the 100 fly on the men’s side, touching the wall in 50.07.

In the men’s 1000 free, senior Eegan Groome earned second-place in 9:20.99, just two seconds off first.

Stevens took third in both the women’s 100 and 200 back races, after clocking times of 58.13 and 2:03.03, respectively.

Mizzou returns to the pool on Friday, Jan. 17 when the squad travels to Columbia, S.C., for a Southeastern Conference dual against South Carolina.

Northern Arizona Press Release

Facing far from ideal conditions, the Northern Arizona swimming & diving team persevered and nearly posted an upset in their double dual versus No. 14 Arizona and Oregon State on Friday at the Hillenbrand Aquatic Center. The Lumberjacks were denied the victory against the Beavers as Oregon State rallied in the final two events to prevail 148-146 against a feisty NAU squad. NAU also fell to the Wildcats, 191-102.

In a long meet featuring both men and women competitors plus additional competition from Missouri of the SEC and WAC rival New Mexico State in the pool as well as Air Force on the diving boards, the Lumberjacks were strong in their finale to a grueling week of training camp in Tucson.

On the swimming side, NAU had a number of solid performances highlighted by a one-two-three finish against the Beavers in the 100 fly. Freshman Kimmy Richter was the lead swimmer of the Lumberjack contingent, placing fourth overall in the event with a time of 58.08. Just behind her were senior Alexis Juergens and freshman Alina Staffeldt with times of 58.76 and 58.95 respectively.

Freshman Roni Houck also a pair of individual wins in the head-to-head against Oregon State, first touching the wall in 24.51 to finish fifth overall in the 50 free. She then picked up another fifth place finish, and first versus the Beavers, in the 100 free with a time of 53.99.

The 200 fly was also a standout event for the ‘Jacks with junior Eva Pold and Staffeldt taking the top two spots against the Beavers with fifth and sixth place finishes ahead of OSU’s top swimmer. Pold, with a time of 2:08.26, and Staffeldt, with a time of 2:09.06, were also good enough to finish third and fourth respectively against the Wildcats.

Several other Lumberjacks posted runner-up finishes head-to-head with Oregon State including junior Kendall Brown placing fifth overall with a time of 10:27.74 in the 1,000 free and freshman Claire Hammond recording a time of 1:55.29 for a seventh place overall finish in the 200 free in the day’s first two individual events. Also finishing second versus OSU was Pold in the 500 free, finishing sixth overall with a time of 5:11.01.

Moving into the breaststroke events, sophomore Urte Kazakeviciute and freshman Melanie Harris continued their strong campaigns with a pair of top 10 finishes in the 100 and 200 events. Both swimmers would finish second and third respectively against the Beavers. NAU’s best finish in the backstroke events came courtesy of junior Lindsay Clark-Warren, who placed eighth overall, and second versus Oregon State, in the 200 with a time of 2:11.38.

“Our fliers swam well and some of our distance girls had some good swims,” said head coach Andy Johns. “Overall, it wasn’t so much about the times as it was about racing and dealing with 40 degree temperatures. It wasn’t a great environment for great performances. All in all, it was a good showing and to come down to the last event against a Pac-12 team in a dual meet is great. Hopefully this was good experience for our team to move forward with.”

Against the Beavers, the Lumberjacks held a 138-120 lead with two events remaining, but Oregon State stole the victory by going one-two in the 200 IM and the 400 free relay.

Part of the reason for NAU’s late lead versus Oregon State was the performance of their divers. Junior Chelsea Jackson posted a third place finish on 3-meter with a score of 260.65. Junior Carlye Townsend (200.25), freshman Alyssa Loeffelman (194.95) and freshman Emma Simmonds (191.85) also recorded top 10 overall finishes.

On 1-meter, sophomore Alexa Geiger was stellar recording a team-best finish of third overall with a score of 250.10. Jackson also placed in the top five in fifth with a score of 216.15. Rounding out the top 10 were Townsend (207.50) and Loeffelman (200.80) with Simmonds (196.85) one spot out in 11th.

“It was cold but we hung tough,” said diving coach Nikki Huffman. “There were definitely some ups and downs. There was some good diving and some not so good diving, but we dealt with the things around us after a hard week of training. We’re happy with what we’ve been doing all week and we’ll be happy to get back home.”

The Lumberjacks will have a quick turnaround with another dual meet at home in the Wall Aquatic Center versus Northern Colorado on Wednesday. The meet will be NAU’s final this season and will be free for all fans to attend starting at 4 p.m.

New Mexico State Press Release

Junior Lauren Reifel earned runner-up honors in the 1-meter and 3-meter dives Friday afternoon at a frigid Arizona dual meet.

Reifel scored a 267.00 on the 1-meter dive and a 253.35 on the 3-meter dive to lead New Mexico State.

“In the 39 degree weather it can be hard to compete, but Lauren competed well,” NM State diving coach Kyle Bogner said. “She took it in stride and competed like it was any other day.”

Junior Dorottya Lennert, who is fresh off winning back-to-back WAC Swimmer of the Week awards, finished third overall in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:11.29. Fellow junior Cassandra Rupp clocked in at 2:13.23 and tied for fifth place.

“With the heavy training, travel, and cold weather today we had a lot of obstacles,” NM State head coach Rick Pratt said. “We will keep moving forward and work harder next week.”

Rupp placed sixth overall in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:09.95 and Lennert placed eighth in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:09.25.

Freshman Georgia Brown finished eighth in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:00.52

The 400-yard freestyle relay team consisting of Cori Molisee, Amina Gummesson, Picabo Bender and Chelsey Reber clocked in at 3:41.55 and placed fifth overall.

Since there were five teams competing the Aggies competed in four separate duals.

Oregon State upended NM State 191-100, Northern Arizona edged NM State 185-114.50, Missouri beat NM State 210-81 and Arizona toppled NM State 198-89.

The Aggies return to the pool Wednesday, Jan. 14 at Idaho.

Results: Missouri, New Mexico State, Northern Arizona, Oregon State vs. Arizona

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