SEC Recap: Tennessee Sweeps Alabama

sec-recap
Photo Courtesy: Dan D'Addona

There were plenty of meets in the SEC to keep track of this week, most notably, Florida earning a historic win at Georgia.

But there were fast swims in other meets across the conference, too.

Tennessee sweeps Alabama

The Tennessee swimming and diving teams earned their first wins of the season Friday at Allan Jones Aquatic Center.

The No. 24 Lady Vols (1-1) posted a dominant performance against No. 25 Alabama, taking 12 of the 16 events and winning 206-94. The No. 15 Tennessee men (1-1) held off a late rally by the 11th-ranked Crimson Tide for a 156-144 win.

The women jumped out to an early lead over the Tide, winning three of the first four events. Bailey Grinter, Nikol Popov, Erika Brown and Stanzi Moseley opened the meet with a win in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:40.66.

Brown posted two-win day, taking the 100-yard backstroke (54.27) and the 100-yard freestyle (49.94). Meghan Small took first in the 200-yard freestyle (1:49.17), while Tess Cieplucha winning the 200-yard breaststroke (2:13.16).

Senior diver Rachel Rubadue swept the 1-meter springboard (301.65) and the 3-meter springboard (303.53). The Lady Vols finished 1-2-3 in both events, with Ana Celaya-Hernandez finishing second and Lillian Schneider taking third.

Overall, the Lady Vols posted six 1-2-3 finishes in the meet. Mallory Beil took first with a time of 2:00.63 in the 200-yard butterfly, followed by Megan Sichterman and Trude Rothrock. Senior Madeline Banic kept the momentum in Tennessee’s favor with a win in the 50-yard freestyle (23.00), with Grinter and Moseley.

LSU wins twice

The LSU men’s swimming and diving team came out on top of both SMU and Loyola on Saturday. LSU defeated SMU 186-101 and Loyola 234-41.

The men got off to a hot start, winning 9 of the first 10 events as they went on to win a total of 14 events.

Karl Luht, Luca Pfyffer, Trent Schachter and Jack Jannasch took the first gold medal of the day in the 200-yard medley relay, combining for a time of 1:30.49.

Sven Saemundsson followed up the relay with a win the 1000-yard freestyle, coming in at 9:33.52. The junior also won the 500-yard freestyle with a season-best 4:36.59.

The men then won seven consecutive events to take control of the meet.

In the women’s meet, LSU defeated Tulane 187-108 and Loyola 229-55. The women are now 4-2 on the season.

The women won 11 of 16 events during the meet.

The Tiger’s first victory came the 200-yard medley relay, as Kate Zimmer, Summer Spradley, Helen Grossman and Leyre Casarin combined for a time of 1:43.26.

The Tigers then won eight consecutive wins, starting with Kate Zimmer’s victory in the 100-yard backstroke, out-touching Tulane’s Paris Zhang to win with a time of 55.48 seconds.

Summer Spradley then won the 100-yard breaststroke, touching the wall at 1:02.64

The Tigers went 1-2-3 in the 200-yard butterfly for the second meet in a row, as Helen Grossman, Gabrielle Pick and Nicole Rozier swept the podiums with times of 2:01.94, 2:02.28, and 2:03.66, respectively.

Haylee Knight took the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 23.65 seconds.

South Carolina falls to UNC

South Carolina men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams posted five personal-best marks and six other season-best times at North Carolina Friday afternoon. With the Tar Heels taking both victories, 159.50-140.50 on the men’s side and 157-143 on the women’s side, the Gamecocks still showed good improvement early in the season.

Seniors Fynn Minuth and Emma Barksdale each won three events. Minuth swam season-best times in the 200 free (1:38.80) and 500 free (4:28.45) while also touching first in the 200 butterfly in 1:49.81.

Barksdale swept the breaststroke events for the second time in as many meets, touching in a personal-best 1:01.57 in the 100 breast and in 2:14.78 in the 200. She went on to swim a season-best time of 1:58.75 in the 200 IM to claim first in that race as well.

The Gamecock women touched first and second in the 200 IM as freshman Hallie Kinsey swam a 2:03.56 in the event. Kinsey was also second in the Gamecocks’ 1-2 finish in the 200 butterfly. Freshman Melinda Novoszath touched first in a personal-best 1:58.46 with Kinsey turning in a time of 1:59.49.

Freshman Katie Sanderson picked up her second win in the 1000 freestyle in as many meets, swimming a 9:55.03 against North Carolina. Karlee Price claimed the one-meter diving title with a score of 280.88. The Gamecocks closed the meet with a win in the 400 free relay as Novoszath, Christina Lappin, Emily Cornelland Barksdale posted a season-best time of 3:21.14.

On the men’s side, sophomore Lionel Khoo swam a season-best time of 53.84 to win the 100 breaststroke and touched first in the 200 IM with a personal-best time of 1:50.80.

Freshman Anton Down-Jenkins swept the diving events with personal-best scores of 358.79 on the one-meter board and 411.98 in the three-meter competition.

Arkansas swims past Vanderbilt

The No. 23 Arkansas swimming and diving team defeated Vanderbilt 160-45 in its final home meet of the semester Friday afternoon. With the win, the Hogs improved to 1-2 (1-2 SEC).

The Razorbacks won all 11 swimming events, earning two podium sweeps.

Arkansas started the meet off strong, with Kobie Melton, Sydney Angell, Marlena Pigliacampi and Kiera Michailoff-Russell earning first place in the 400 yard medley relay (3:46.25). Andrea Sansores, Vanessa Herrmann, Sarah Dalton Chambliss, and Molly Moore placed third (3:50.33) in the event.

Sophomore Peyton Palsha won both of the distance events she competed in, finishing the 1650 yard freestyle with a time of 17:02.55 and finishing the 400 yard individual medley with a time of 4:22.84.

Freshman Lexi Ljunggren had an impressive meet as well, winning the 500 yard freestyle (5:02.17) and placing second in the 1650 yard freestyle (17:09.71).

Freshman Molly Moore earned her first individual victory, winning the 50 yard freestyle (23.63). She also earned two first-place finishes in the team relay events.

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