Kentucky Swimming Hosted Northwestern, Missouri, Southern Illinois

Photo Courtesy: Griffin Scott

LEXINGTON – Kentucky swimming hosted a truckload of swimming with Northwestern, Missouri and Southern Illinois all in town for a two-day quad meet.

Kentucky Press Release

The Kentucky women’s swimming and diving team beat Northwestern and Southern Illinois as the UK men’s team beat SIU on the final day of quad meet competition Saturday at the Lancaster Aquatics Center.

The UK women beat Southern Illinois, 273-80 and Northwestern 206-147, while the men beat Southern Illinois, 273-80. The women lost to Missouri, 199-154, and the men lost 208-145 to Northwestern and 228-120 to Missouri.

Saturday, seniors Christina Bechtel and Abby Myers notched wins for the Wildcats after Bechtel and sophomore Kendal Casey and Kyle Higgins recorded wins on Friday. A complete recap from the first day of competition can be found here.

“It was a great weekend, overall I was pleased with how both teams did,” UK head coach Lars Jorgensen said. “This quad meet format really helps prepare you for the Ohio State Invitational in two weeks and the SEC and NCAA Championships. For us, that was really beneficial. Both the men’s and women’s teams were more competitive than they’ve been, so it was a good weekend.”

Bechtel recorded Kentucky’s first win of the day with a 53.06 in the 100 butterfly. The win marked the senior’s seventh victory in seven races in the butterfly in the 2014-15 season. Bechtel’s win came by 0.70 seconds.

Two events later, the Wildcats tallied a one-two finish in the women’s 200 freestyle. Myers touched the wall first in 1:50.83, followed closely by fellow senior Kristen Wilson, who posted a season-best 1:51.35.

UK recorded six additional runner-up finishes, in addition to Wilson’s. The Wildcats opened the second day of competition with second-place finishes in two of the first three events, the women’s 200 medley relay and Andrew Aviotti in the men’s 1,000 freestyle. Kentucky’s relay squad finished in 1:42.36, while Aviotti touched the wall in 9:21.21.

Sophomore Danielle Galyer placed second in the 100 backstroke with a 55.22. Galyer also placed third with a season-best 4:23.68 in the 400 individual medley. On the weekend, she posted three second-place finishes and one third-place showing.

Fellow sophomore Brandon Flynn placed second in the 200 breaststroke with a season-best 2:06.52. Flynn also finished third in the 400 individual medley with a time of 4:00.80.

Kyle Higgins, who won his first event of the season Friday, recorded a runner-up finish in the 100 butterfly. The sophomore notched a season-best 49.73.

The Wildcats’ final second-place finish came in the final event of the day, the women’s 400 freestyle relay. Myers, senior Blair Kuethe, sophomore Kendal Casey and Wilson totaled a time of 3:27.77.

Bechtel and Casey also recorded a third-place finish, with a 23.58 in the 50 freestyle and a 10:11.78 in the 1,000 freestyle, respectively.

Kentucky closes the fall competition season at the Ohio State Invitational, Nov. 21-23 in Columbus, Ohio. The Wildcats will go up against host-Ohio State, Purdue, Wisconsin, Virginia and Kenyon.

Northwestern Press Release

No. 21 Northwestern concluded the two-day Kentucky Quad Dual meet at the Lancaster Aquatic Center Saturday morning with a 2-1 record.

Missouri, receiving votes in the same CSCAA poll that has NU ranked, swept the quad dual and defeated the Wildcats, 221-127. Northwestern came out on top of Southern Illinois, 249-104, and host Kentucky, 208-145, by wide margins.

Following a short overnight ‘Cat nap between Friday’s evening session and Saturday morning’s early first whistle, Northwestern touched first in the 200 medley relay. NU’s team of Alex Snarski (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville), Uula Auren (Helsinki, Finland/Mäkelänrinteen Lukio), Andy Jovanovic (Chicago, Ill./Loyola Academy) and Almog Olshtein (Haifa, Israel/Haifa) finished in 1:30.86 to defeat a pair of Missouri squads.

Jordan Wilimovsky (Malibu, Calif./Malibu) won the 1,000 free at cruising altitude, coming home in 9:12.02 to finish ahead of the second-place swimmer by 9.19 seconds. Olshtein then ended up second overall between two Missouri swimmers in the 50 free with a 20.65 effort.

In the 100 back, NU freshman Snarski engaged with Missouri’s Carter Griffin, who qualified for the NCAA Championships in the backstroke a year ago. Griffin won this battle to the way by just two one-hundredths of a second, out-touching Snarski 49.95 to 49.97.

In the 200 breast, Van Donkersgoed (Eden Prairie, Minn./Minnehaha Academy) was part of a trio of swimmers in second through fourth places separated by just .23 of a second. Donkersgoed was second among that group and third overall with a 2:06.58. Jovanovic then was third as well for Northwestern in the 100 fly with a 50.49.

In the 200 free, Charlie Cole (Bernardsville, N.J./Bernards) cut a 1.5 seconds from his season-best in the event to touch in a second-place time of 1:39.84, four one-hundredths of a second ahead of Southern Illinois’ top swimmer.

Wilimovsky staged a huge battle for first in the 400 IM with Kentucky’s Brandon Flynn and in the end got the best of the SEC Wildcat for his third victory in the meet, this one coming with a five one-hundredths of a second margin in 4:00.75. Donkersgoed came in fourth overall in 4:09.20 during the first swimming of the event this season.

NU made it a sweep of the Saturday relays in the final event of the meet, touching first by nearly a full second in the 400 free relay with a time of 3:05.52 achieved by Olshtein, Jovanovic, Gage Kohner (Boca Raton, Fla./Boca Raton Community) and Nick Petersen (Thiensville, Wis./Homestead).

Southern Illinois Press Release

The Southern Illinois University swimming and diving teams finished an action packed weekend on Saturday, with several individuals putting together strong races for the Salukis.

Competing against some of the toughest competition so far this season, SIU had some standout performances on day two.

Freshmen duo Kelsie Walker and Bryn Handley led the Salukis to a win in the 1000-yard freestyle in the dual against Missouri, finishing first and second respectively. The freshmen pair have been outstanding for the Salukis so far this season.

Till Pallmann kept his momentum from Friday, finishing first in the men’s 50-yard freestyle and 200-yard freestyle in the dual against Kentucky. Pallmann, along with Andre Brilhante, Shaun Wolfe, and Calvin Kolar gave the Salukis a boost in the 400-yard freestyle Relay, finishing second behind Northwestern, but earning wins in the duals against UK and Missouri.

Missouri Press Release

The Mizzou men’s swimming and diving team picked up three dual victories over Kentucky (228.00-120.00), Northwestern (221.00-127.00) and Southern Illinois (253.00-95.00) at a quad meet in Lexington, Ky., this weekend. The two-day meet marked the first time that the Tigers faced a Southeastern Conference opponent in Kentucky. Mizzou is now 4-0 in dual action overall and 1-0 in the SEC.

The Tigers got out to a quick start on Friday. Matthew Margitier’s season-best 20.00 leadoff split helped the 200 free relay squad grab first behind a 1:20.83. Then in the first individual event, Mizzou completed a 1-2-3 sweep. Senior Igor Koslovskij swam a 1:49.71 to earn the win, followed by teammates Mack Darragh and Michael Chadwick in second and third respectively.

The success continued as the Tigers added another sweep in the 100 breast. Senior Sam Tierney won with a 54.52 while Koslovskij and freshman Jordy Groters claimed second and third.
Chadwick and Koslovskij joined sophomore Carter Griffin with two event wins each. Griffin, who was recently named to Team USA’s 2015 Pan American Games roster, won the 100 back and 200 back. He has already earned an NCAA B qualifying time this season in the 200 back.

In the 100 free, Chadwick just out-touched Magritier to clinch the win in 44.41. Chadwick also helped the Tigers’ 400 medley relay squad take first in 3:87.89 to wrap up the first day of events.

On Saturday, Mizzou continued to build on its lead as the Tigers rattled off five consecutive event wins. Margritier launched the streak, clocking a 20.05 in the 50 free. Koslovskij followed with his second event victory in the 200 breast behind a 2:01.59. Additionally, Darragh and Chadwick added wins in the 100 fly and 100 free along with Griffin’s triumph in the 200 back.

In the diving well, junior Clark Thomas notched 340.90 points to win the 1-meter competition. He secured second place in the 3-meter dive with 392.55 points.

Results: Kentucky vs. Northwestern vs. Missouri vs. Southern Illinois

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