Sam McHugh Triples, Tennessee Sweeps LSU

KNOXVILLE, TN - December 5, 2013 - Samuel Rairden prepares for the 4x100 Yard Medley Relay during the USA Swimming AT&T Winter National Championships at the Allan Jones Aquatic Center in Knoxville, Tennessee

Photo Courtesy: Tia Patron/Tennessee Athletics

BATON ROUGE – Sam McHugh won three events while Madeline Tegner, Molly Hannis and Faith Johnson won two to lead the University of Tennessee swimming and diving teams to a sweep of SEC rival LSU on Saturday at the LSU Natatorium. The women’s team won 159-135, while the men came out on top 184.5-106.5.

Tennessee Press Release

A couple days after competing in College Station, Tennessee Swimming and Diving concluded its two-meet SEC road trip in Baton Rouge by sweeping Louisiana State (M: 184.5-106.5; W: 159-135) at the LSU Natatorium in Baton Rouge Saturday.

The No. 15 Volunteer men (6-4, 3-1 SEC) opened the meet with a torrid start, winning the first 13 events to jump out to an early lead against the Tigers (2-4, 0-4 SEC). The No. 11 Vol women (6-3-1, 2-1-1 SEC), meanwhile, won the first five of seven events before the first diving break, then won four straight races to pull away from the No. 21 Tigers (3-3, 2-2 SEC).

Sam McHugh won three more events to give him six wins on the road trip, while the men’s distance freestylers swept the top three spots in both events. Madeline Tegner, Molly Hannis, Troy Tillman and Faith Johnson each won two races apiece in a dual meet which saw 14 different Vols earn a victory.

After defeating LSU on their Senior Day, the Vols return to Knoxville for their final home meet and Senior Day festivities against Georgia at 12 p.m. at the Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center.

Inside the Men’s Scoring
The men won all 16 events against LSU, prevailing with a 184.5-106.5 victory to earn their second straight SEC road victory.

Soon after winning a trio of events in Texas, freshman Sam McHugh once again led the Vols with three more victories. The Chattanooga, Tenn., first-year swimmer began his afternoon by claiming top spot in the 200 Free in 1:38.13, about a second off his career-best time set at Nike Cup last November.

The Vols swept the event, thanks to a second-place finish from Tristan Slater (1:39.51) and Gustav Aberg Ledjstrom’s third-place result (1:41.07). McHugh then took first place in both the 200 Fly (1:46.58) and the 400 IM (3:49.54).

The victory in the 200 Fly is the fifth of the season for McHugh, while his win in the IM is his third in three races this season.

UT’s male distance swimmers swept the top-three places in both the 500 and 1000 Free, led by Evan Pinion’s two victories (4:32.14 in 500, 9:23.24 in 1000). Ben Miller (4:36.99, 9:30.26) earned two second places, while Trevor Leland (4:39.37, 9:32.23) earned a season-best in the 1000 en route to two third-place finishes.

Senior Troy Tillman swept the sprint events, winning his fourth 50 Free race (20.63) and first 100 Free race (44.98). UT took 1-2 in the 50 with Chris Sadsad finishing second in 20.67. Jacob Thulin (45.55), Joshua Romany (46.23) and Aberg Ledjstrom (46.84) placed third, fourth and fifth respectively.

UT’s backstrokers swept the two events, beginning with Jimmy Dagley’s victory in the 100 (49.49), his third of the season and first since Oct. 31. Junior Sean Lehane (1:44.86) claimed first in the 200 Back, the fifth of the 2014-15 season. Dagley (1:49.03) finished second, while Tim Wylie earned a pair of fourth-place results.

The breaststroke duo of Ross Dibblin and Tristan Slater earned another two victories for UT. Dibblin earned his first victory of the season in the 100 in 55.24, beating out four Tigers for the win. Slater earned his third victory of the road trip by winning the 200 in 2:00.70, while Dibblin finished second in 2:02.18.

While McHugh won the 200 Fly, senior Jacob Thulin earned the victory in the 100 for the second consecutive meet, winning in 48.85, 0.53 seconds off his winning time at Texas A&M. UT claimed third (Tyler Mills in 49.54), fourth (Ryan Coetzee in 49.89) and eighth (Sadsad in 50.60) in the event.

Tennessee’ relays began and ended the meet with victories in both the 200 Medley Relay and 200 Free Relay. Lehane, Peter John Stevens, Thulin and Tillman won the medley in 1:27.71, while Sadsad, Tillman, Coetzee and Aberg Ledjstrom won the Free Relay in 1:20.84.

Inside the Women’s Scoring
The women’s team won 10 races, including four straight in between diving breaks, to pull away from the Tigers, 159-135.

Tegner earned her second and third victories of the road trip by winning both distance events. She opened the individual races by earning first place in the 1000 Free in 9:57.58. Teammate Morgan Dickson (10:17.54) finished second for UT.

Tegner later won the 500 Free in 4:53.54, her third win in the event this season. Caroline Finkbeiner (4:56.49, 3rd), Mary Griffith (4:56.66, 4th) and Heather Lundstrom (5:02.67) also placed for UT.

Just like the double dual meet in College Station, Hannis swept the breaststroke events–the sixth time she has done so this season. She swam the 100 in one minute for the fourth time this season (1:00.43), with Colleen Callahan (1:02.92), Micah Bohon (1:05.94) and Anna DeMonte (1:07.86) placed second, fifth and sixth respectively.

Hannis and Callahan placed 1-2 in the 200, with Hannis winning in 2:10.09 and Callahan finishing in 2:16.13, a new season-best. Erin Gaeckle finished sixth in 2:30.60 in her third race in the event this season.

Johnson swept both sprint races for UT, straddling the first diving break. The junior topped her third-place finish in the 50 at Texas A&M by swimming a 22.59 for her eighth win in the event this season. Cherelle Thompson (23.03), Amy Lubawy (23.91) and Heather Kiger (24.31) placed third, fourth and sixth for UT.

Johnson came out of the diving break and earned her second win in the 100 Free for the third time this season in 49.84. Alex Cleveland (51.26), Bohon (51.29) and Thompson (54.88) placed third, fourth and eighth.

UT’s two other wins came in the two backstroke events, starting with Madison Hahn’s 55.45 time to earn her second victory in the backstroke, the first since her win in Chapel Hill at the Nike Cup. Gaeckle (56.56) placed fourth, while Lauren Driscoll (57.22) finished seventh and Michelle Cefal (58.56) finished eighth in her first race in the event in her career.

DeMonte took first in the 200 by swimming a season-best 1:58.30, edging out teammate Amanda Carner by .02 seconds. Hahn (2:03.08) finished fifth, while Logan Haddock (2:10.03) finished in eighth place.

Along with their individual success, the Vols’ relay success continued at LSU, with UT’s A teams winning both the 200 Medley Relay and 200 Free Relay. Hahn, Hannis, Harper Bruens and Thompson started the afternoon by winning the medley in 1:39.98 to lead UT to three of the top four spots. At the end of the meet, Bruens, Lubawy, Johnson and Cleveland sprinted to a first-place finish in 1:31.78.

Inside Diving
After recording one victory in the two events at Texas A&M, Mauricio Robles led UT diving by sweeping both competitions. Robles won his fourth one-meter (351.23) and fifth three-meter (401.03) event of the season, surpassing 400 points for the fifth time in 2014-15.

Freshman Liam Stone completed his first SEC road trip by earning two more top-two finishes. After scoring 328.28 to earn second place in the one-meter, Stone matched that placement by scoring 356.33 to tie LSU’s Daniel Helm in the three-meter. Michael Howell finished in fifth place in both events.

LSU Press Release

The LSU Swimming and Diving team fell to Tennessee in the final home dual meet of the season by a score of 159-135 on the women’s side and 184.5-106.5 for the men. Kara Kopcso led the squad with three wins. The sophomore swept the fly events and won the 400 IM.

“She has had a good few weeks of training,” LSU Swimming coach Dave Geyer said. “She responds differently than other people so she is always able to compete at a high level. It’s right about where we expected her to be at this point.”

The Lady Tigers team of Caley Oquist, Colleen O’Neil, Kopcso and Amber Carter led off with a close 200-medley relay and finished second. Carter swam a 22.54 50 free split to close the gap.

The men’s team of Brandon Goldman, Silas Dejean, Frank Greeff and Marco Gonzalez led off with a third-place finish in the 200-medley relay (1:30.59).

Carter touched the wall in three events against the 50 free (22.98), 100 free (50.96) and 100 fly (54.28). Fellow senior Greeff finished second in the 100 fly (49.49) and 200 fly (1:48.57).

Juniors Megan Cox and Oquist each won an event for the women’s team. Cox took first in the 200 free (1:48.58). Oquist touched the wall first in the 100 back (54.68) and finished third in the 200 back (1:58.63).

O’Neil touched the wall third in the 100 breast (1:03.26) and the 200 breast (2:19.78). Danielle Stirrat finished third in the 100 back (56.78) and Jessie James finished third in the 1000 free (10:27.05)

Three men finished second in the meet, Logan Rysemus in the 100 back (50.39), Dejean in the 100 breast (56.47) and Alex Linge in the 100 free (45.34). Grant Grenfell and Devin McCaffrey also finished third in the 100 back (50.90) and 50 free (20.73) respectively.

Goldman and House each finished third in two events. Goldman posted times of 1:50.26 in the 200 back and 1:50.36 in the 200 fly. House finished with times of 2:03.38 in the 200 breast and 57.18 in the 100 breast.

“We were definitely sharper than we were last week,” Geyer added. “We could have made some modifications to our schedule and swam faster. Our goal though is to swim fast at the end of the season. Our men battled harder in the second half of the meet and threw down some better times.”

On the diving side, Alex Bettridge finished first on one-meter with a score of 317.93. The senior also finished third on three-meter (293.10). Cassie Weil won three-meter with a score of 307.80 and also finished second on one-meter (278.03).

“We had some good performances today,” LSU Diving coach Doug Shaffer said. “We weren’t as consistent nor did we compete as well as we need to going forward with the season. Overall, I am pleased. We had some rocky spots, and I think there were some places we could have done better.”

Senior Daniel Helm tied for second on three-meter with a score of 356.33. Helm also finished third on one-meter (321.90).

To finish the meet, the team of Oquist, Leah Troskot, Cox and Stirrat finished second in the 200 free relay (1:34.92). The team of Gonzalez, McCaffrey, Linge and Greeff also finished second for the men with a time of 1:22.64.

The LSU Swimming and Diving team takes the week off from competition before traveling to College Station, Texas to take on the Aggies on Saturday, Jan. 24.

For more information and updates on LSU Swimming and Diving please visit LSUsports.net, ‘like’ us on Facebook at LSU Swimming and Diving or follow us on Twitter @LSUswimdive.

Results: Tennessee vs. LSU

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