Louisville Grabs Lead in Both Men’s, Women’s Races After Day Two of American Athletic Conference Champs

Tanja Kylliainen Women's NCAA Division I Championships

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky, February 20. DAY two of the American Athletic Conference Swimming and Diving Championships wrapped up Friday at the Ralph Wright Natatorium in Louisville, Ky. with the host Louisville Cardinals sitting in first place on both the men’s and women’s side. The second day of competition featured preliminaries in the morning and finals in the evening session in nine different events.

The night opened with the women’s 500-Yard Freestyle, with Cincinnati getting their first event victory of the championships as star freshman Jackie Keire took first place. Keire swam a pool record 4:43.02, finishing nearly a second ahead of the second place swimmer from SMU, Nina Rangelova. Louisville freshman Abbie Houck took third place in 4:46.11.

In a very close race, UConn’s Chris Girg was first to the wall to claim the victory in the men’s 500-Yard Freestyle. Girg finished in 4:19.24, edging Louisville’s Trevor Carroll, who touched in 4:22.60. The Cardinals Matthias Lindenbauer swam 4:23.87 to place third.

After setting a fast pace in the morning preliminaries, Louisville’s Tanja Kylliainen bettered her mark and set a pool record by swimming a 1:56.34 to win the 200-Yard IM, a NCAA Invite time in 2013. Morgan Pfaff took second in 1:58.46, with Erica Belcher swimming a 2:00.57 to pick up a third place finish for the Cardinals.

The men’s 200-Yard IM was won by Louisville’s Nolan Tessone, who led throughout the race and bested his own pool record. Tessone touched the wall in 1:45.30, beating the second place finisher and fellow Cardinal Josh Quallen by 1.5 seconds. The freshman finished second in 1:46.82, with SMU’s Nicolai Hansen taking third in 1:47.06. The Cardinals claimed four of the top five finishes in the race.

The women’s 50-Yard freestyle went to UConn’s Chinyere Pigot, who raced to the wall in a pool record time of 22.61. The former Olympian from Suriname, Pigot held off SMU freshman Marne Erasmus, who placed second in 22.68. Louisville’s Krissie Brandenburg was third in 22.73.

In the shortest race of the night, Joao De Lucca won the men’s 50-Yard Freestyle, swimming a pool record 19.58. The senior bested teammate Thomas Dahlia by .36 seconds, with SMU’s Ramon Melo finishing third in 19.91.

Women’s 1-Meter Diving was won by Houston’s Natasha Burgess, who scored a 289.25.Teammate Danielle Shedd came in second with a 284.50. UConn’s Taryn Urbanus, Thursday’s champion in the 3-meter board, placed third with a 270.90.

The women’s 200-Yard Freestyle Relay was won by SMU, who outpaced Cincinnati’s swimmers to the wall. The team of Marne Erasmus, Isabella Arcila, Monika Babok, and Nathalie Lindborg swam a 1:29.83 to take first place, followed by the Bearcats (1:32.01) and Cardinals (1:32.38).

Louisville won the Men’s 200-Yard Freestyle Relay. The team of Caryle Blondell, Joao De Lucca, Thomas Dahlia, and Trevor Carrol touched the wall in 1:18.34, a pool record. Second place went to SMU, who finished in 1:19.16, with UConn swimming 1:20.96 to take third. De Lucca picked up his third gold medal of the championships in the event, having previously finished first in the 800-yard freestyle relay and the 50-yard freestyle.

The American Athletic Conference Championship continues tomorrow, Feb. 21 beginning at 10 a.m. with swimming preliminaries. Diving prelims and consolations will begin at 12:30 pm. Tomorrow’s events include the men’s 3-meter diving, 400-individual medley, 100-yard butterfly, 200-yard freestyle, 100-yard breastroke, 100-yard backstroke, and the 400-yard medley relay. Finals will be in the evening session, beginning at 6 p.m. You can watch a live stream, hosted by The American Digital Network’s Jamie Corun at www.theamerican.org/sd.

Men’s Team Standings
1 Louisville 345
2 SMU 277
3 UConn 245
4 Cincinnati 155

Women’s Team Standings
1 Louisville 376
2 SMU 236
3 Rutgers 216
4 UConn 191
5 Cincinnati 152
6 Houston 147

Results For: American Athletic Conference: Day Two

The above article is a press release submitted to Swimming World. To reach our audience, contact us at newsmaster@swimmingworldmagazine.com.

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