Tennessee Swims Past Vanderbilt in SEC Dual

Photo Courtesy: Andrew Ferguson/Tennessee Athletics

Sixth-ranked Tennessee women’s swimming posted the fastest time in all 14 events and swept six races during a 204-58 victory against Vanderbilt at Centennial Sportsplex on Thursday.

“I’m really proud of the energy and focus that this group brought to the meet today,” Tennessee associate head coach Ashley Jahn said. “They took control of their preparation, their race plans and then executed those plans aggressively. This is an exciting time of year for seniors, and we want to congratulate the Vanderbilt seniors and their coaches. We are grateful for the opportunity to race and appreciate being able to celebrate senior athletes that have given a lot to the conference and the sport. It’ll be a quick turnaround for some of these athletes, as we head to Georgia tomorrow for a meet on Saturday.”

Alexandra Gebel led the Lady Vols with three individual wins on the day, sweeping the breaststroke events and posting the fastest time in the 200 IM (2:06.76). Gebel touched the wall in 1:01.65 in the 100 breast and in 2:11.98 in the 200. Emily Sykes took second in both events, posting times of 1:02.19 and 2:12.79. Jordan Aurnou-Rhees placed third (2:23.97) in the 200 to finish the sweep, and she also threw down a 2:08.12 mark to take second in the 200 IM.

Each of the five freestyle races saw a different Tennessee swimmer notch the top time, while Tennessee swept two of the events. Natalie Ungaretti threw down a 23.21 to win the 50 free followed by Asia Minnes in second (24.07). Annie Rimmer (51.26) and Ungaretti (51.48) finished first and second in the 100 free. Elle Caldow recorded the top time in the 200 free, touching the wall in 1:48.03. Danika Katzer (1:50.70) and Rimmer (1:50.95) took second and third to complete the sweep.

In the distance freestyles, Tennessee’s Claire Nguyen (4:50.33), Lauren Wetherell (4:52.20) and Summer Eaker (4:59.73) swept the 500. Wetherell won the 1000 with a personal-best mark of 10:00.47, while Eaker took second at 10:06.29.

Nguyen also picked up a second win in the 200 fly with a 2:01.63 time. Berit Quass placed second in the race after posting a mark of 2:03.17. Emma Carlton notched the top times in the 100 fly (54.40) and 100 back (53.67). Olivia Harper won the 200 back with a time of 1:57.97 after finishing second in the 100 back (55.44). Amber Myers completed the sweep of the 100 with a time of 56.39 to take third, while Caldow (1:59.93) and Danika Katzer (1:59.98) placed second and third in the Tennessee sweep of the 200.

UT threw down the three fastest times in the 400 free relay, as the lineup of Carlton, Katzer, Myers and Eaker posted the top mark of 3:25.47. Tennessee won the 200 medley relay with a 1:41.69 time by the squad of Carlton, Gebel, Minnes and Ungaretti.

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It was senior day for Vanderbilt.

“It was really great to honor our seniors while getting back into the water to compete,” Vanderbilt coach Jeremy Organ said. “I’m so proud of our seniors and all they’ve done for our program. We’re looking forward to continuing to improve as the season progresses to send our seniors off on a high note.”

Starting off the meet, Vandy’s A-relay team was able to claim a second-place finish behind Tennessee in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Abby Burke, Faith Knelson, Tonner Debeer, and Eleanor Beers clocked in at 1:43.44.

Senior Faith Knelson capped off her home career by finishing third in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:03.91) and third in the 200-yard individual medley (2:10.98).

Kailia Utley secured a third-place finish in the 200-yard butterfly (2:07.03). Gabriela Pierobon Mays added another bronze finish in the 50-yard freestyle (24.48). Mercedes Traba took home another hard-fought third-place finish, finishing her 1,000-yard freestyle in 10:22.20.

In one of the closer races of the meet, senior Tonner Debeer out-touched Tennessee’s Annie Rimmer by 0.2 seconds for second place to finish her 100-yard butterfly in 56.73.

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