Photo Credit: Griffin Scott<\/p>\n
LEXINGTON – The University of Kentucky women lead Southern Illinois and Northwestern, while the men lead Southern Illinois after the first day of racing at the Kentucky quad meet with Missouri, Northwestern and Southern Illinois.<\/p>\n
With wins by senior Christina Bechtel and sophomores Kendal Casey and Kyle Higgins, the Kentucky swimming and diving team opened the first day of competition in a quad meet vs. Missouri, Northwestern and Southern Illinois.<\/p>\n
Through the first day of competition, 20 of 38 events, the Kentucky women lead Southern Illinois, 136-50 and Northwestern 121-65 and trail Missouri, 114-72. The UK men hold a 121-65 lead over SIU and trail NU 115-71 and Mizzou 134-52. The four teams conclude competition Saturday morning at 9 a.m. ET.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe men swam pretty well, but I thought the women were okay but not great today,\u201d UK head coach Lars Jorgensen said. \u201cKyle Higgins had a great victory that has a chance to set him up for the NCAA Championships. We had some guys step up and I thought this was the best meet they\u2019ve had so far. For the women, Kendal Casey was really good with a victory, as was Christina Bechtel. Missouri swam extremely well today and we\u2019re going to have our hands full tomorrow, we definitely need to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Casey posted Kentucky\u2019s first win of the day, and her first of the season, with a victory in the 500 freestyle. The sophomore touched the wall in 4:51.18, a season-best time to win by over two seconds.<\/p>\n
Higgins also recorded his first win of the season, thanks to a 1:48.07 in the 200 butterfly. A season-best time for the sophomore, Higgins won by 1.34 seconds over Missouri\u2019s Daniel Graviss.<\/p>\n
In the very next race, Bechtel kept her perfect season alive in butterfly events with a season-best 1:57.37 to win the 200 butterfly. The win came by over three seconds, ahead of Northwestern\u2019s Ellen Stello, who finished in 2:00.79.<\/p>\n
Sophomore Danielle Galyer tallied a pair of second-place finishes Friday, in the 200 individual medley and the 200 backstroke. Galyer recorded a personal-best 4:29.84 in the individual medley and finished 1.09 shy of the winner from Missouri.<\/p>\n
In the 200 backstroke, Galyer\u2019s 1:58.08 came 0.89 behind Missouri. UK freshman Bridgette Alexander placed fourth in 2:02.68, earning a top-four spot by 0.19 seconds.<\/p>\n
Freshman Isaac Jones also posted a runner-up finish, thanks to a personal best in the 500 freestyle. A 4:29.84 was good for a spot in the top two by 1.27 seconds.<\/p>\n
In the final event of the day, UK\u2019s women\u2019s 400 medley relay team placed second in 3:41.24. Galyer led off with a 54.96, followed by senior Sam Shaheen with a 1:02.54 and Bechtel with a 53.31. Senior Abby Myers closed with a 50.43.<\/p>\n
In the diving events, sophomore Rebecca Hamperian placed third on 1-meter with a season-best 292.50 and fourth on 3-meter with a 281.80. Senior Christa Cabot recorded a third-place finish on 3-meter with a 288.65. Freshman Levi Lindsey led UK on 1-meter with a 276.70 to place fourth, while Stephen Jou\u2019s 273.80 on 3-meter was a career-best to finish seventh.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday was a good learning experience for our team,\u201d head diving coach Ted Hautau said. \u201cRebecca Hamperian was more confident today. They were competing against a stacked field and I think mentally we weren\u2019t as good coming into this week, and that goes for me too. I\u2019m really glad we had this meet early in the season against some quality opponents. I think it was beneficial for us to make sure that we have a tough meet like this. I\u2019m really happy with the guys for some good strides this week. They just didn\u2019t perform very well, but they\u2019ll get a lot better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 200 freestyle relay team tallied a third-place finish with a time of 1:34.91, with a lineup of Bechtel, sophomore Morgan Contino, senior Kristen Wilson and Myers.<\/p>\n
Kentucky totaled five fourth-place finishes, two in relay events and one each by Myers, Shaheen and sophomore Sean Gunn.<\/p>\n
For complete news and updates on the Kentucky Swimming and Diving program, go to UKathletics.com\/SwimmingDiving. Breaking news, behind-the-scenes updates, photos and more can be found on Twitter at @UKSwimDive and Facebook at Facebook.com\/UKSwimDive.<\/p>\n
Northwestern leads Southern Illinois and trails Missouri and host Kentucky following the first session of action in a two-day, combined quad dual meet at the Lancaster Aquatic Center.<\/p>\n
NU has a healthy lead over fellow Land of Lincoln school Southern Illinois, 123-63, while Kentucky (121-65) and Missouri (135-51) are in front of the ‘Cats.<\/p>\n
Northwestern had a solid opening in the 200 free relay, easily securing second place overall behind Missouri with a 1:34.18 from the team of Mary Warren (Hartland, Wis.\/Arrowhead), Julia Pratt (Vincennes, Ind.\/Vincennes Rivet), Anna Keane (Edmonds, Wash.\/Meadowdale) and Annika Winsnes (Singapore\/United World College).<\/p>\n
In the first individual event, sophomore Lacey Locke (Carmel, Ind.\/Carmel) cut almost 3.5 seconds from her previous season-best in the 200 IM to place fourth overall behind two Missouri swimmers and one Kentucky entry with a 2:03.65. Classmate Ellen Stello (Shorewood, Wis.\/Shorewood) touched in sixth overall with a season-best 2:05.31.<\/p>\n
Sophomore Lauren Abruzzo (Denver, Colo.\/Kent Denver) grabbed third place in the 500 free with a 4:54.62 behind one Tiger and one SEC Wildcat. Freshman Sydney Modeas (East Amherst, N.Y.\/Clarence) touched in seventh, with a 4:57.37 that represented a significant drop from her previous two collegiate swims in the event.<\/p>\n
After Julianne Kurke (Atlanta, Ga.\/Parkview) was NU’s top finisher in the 100 breast with a seventh-place 1:04.48, Locke pushed her season-best in the 200 back down a couple of seconds to swim a 2:00.49 and place third overall behind a swimmer from Missouri and one from Kentucky. Melissa Postoll (Acworth, Ga.\/Kennesaw Mountain) ended up sixth in 2:04.14 to give the Wildcats a 1-2 finish over SIU in the event.<\/p>\n
The sophomore Winsnes turned it on in the 100 free to swim a career-best 50.63 in the event and finish second overall behind a Tiger. Warren was seventh overall in the race.<\/p>\n
Stello came out and continued her mastery of the 200 fly early in the season with her third-straight 2:00 time, touching Friday in 2:00.79. She finished second behind a very quick Kentucky effort but in front of all Missouri swimmers. Emily Launer (DeKalb, Ill.\/Rosary) placed fifth in a season-best 2:05.60.<\/p>\n
With diving held much earlier Friday afternoon, freshman Mashal Demaisip (Norwalk, Calif.\/Gahr) was Northwestern’s top finisher on both boards with ninth-place overall results in the 1-meter and 3-meter events.<\/p>\n
NU suffered lost points to conclude Friday’s first half when its `A’ 400 medley relay was DQ’d.<\/p>\n
Day two of action at the Kentucky quad dual begins bright and early tomorrow morning with an 8 a.m. CT\/9 a.m. ET start time.<\/p>\n
No. 21 Northwestern leads both Kentucky and Southern Illinois while trailing Missouri following the first session of action at a combined two-day, quad-dual meet at the Lancaster Aquatic Center.<\/p>\n
Northwestern has a wide 121-65 lead on SIU while currently sitting ahead of its hosts 115-71. Missouri, which is receiving votes in the same CSCAA coaches poll that has NU ranked 21st, leads the Wildcats 138-48.<\/p>\n
Missouri won the opening 200 free relay followed by Northwestern’s squad of Almog Olshtein (Haifa, Israel\/Haifa), Gage Kohner (Boca Raton, Fla.\/Boca Raton Community), Andrew Jovanovic (Chicago, Ill.\/Loyola Academy) and Nick Petersen (Thiensville, Wis.\/Homestead) in second with a 1:23.30. The Wildcats raced to the wall at the end to out-touch the Tigers’ `B’ relay by four one-hundredths of a second.<\/p>\n
Missouri then began the individual events with a bang, sweeping the top four positions in the 200 IM. Freshman Alex Snarski (Libertyville, Ill.\/Libertyville) and Grant Halsall (Laxey, Isle of Man, GBR) were sixth and seventh overall for Northwestern behind those four Tigers and one Southern Illinois swimmer.<\/p>\n
Junior Jordan Wilimovsky (Malibu, Calif.\/Malibu) picked up Northwestern’s first victory of the meet with a time of 4:25.72 in the 500 free to beat the field by more than four full seconds. Sophomore Charlie Cole (Bernardsville, N.J.\/Bernards) was seventh overall behind an assortment of Missouri and Kentucky entries but ahead of all Southern Illinois foes.<\/p>\n
Missouri again took the top three positions in the 100 breast followed by Northwestern senior Uula Auren (Helsinki, Finland\/M\u00e4kel\u00e4nrinteen Lukio), whose time of 57.09 put him fourth overall.<\/p>\n
Snarksi took third overall behind a pair of Tigers in the 200 back with a 1:50.07 while Jonathan Lieberman (Eden Prairie, Minn.\/Eden Prairie) and Halsall ended up in a dead heat with each other for seventh place at 1:52.80. Lieberman’s time represented a nearly five second drop from his previous season-best in the race.<\/p>\n
Northwestern had a bit of a stumble in the 100 free when its top-ranked swimmer in the event, Olshtein, ended up ninth overall. Jovanovic and Kohner led the Wildcats in the race with sixth- and seventh-place finishes, respectively.<\/p>\n
Wilimovsky and Cole were NU’s top placers in the 200 fly at eighth- and ninth-overall, then Northwestern’s 400 medley relay of Snarski, Auren, Halsall and Jovanovic beat all Kentucky and SIU teams while finishing third overall in 3:21.26.<\/p>\n
Diving Friday took place at 11 a.m. CT, well ahead of the swimming events. Sophomore Andrew Cramer (Indianapolis, Ind.\/Cathedral) finished second overall on the 1-meter board with a 299.05 and also led the Wildcats on the 3-meter board with a season-best and third-place total of 353.00. Senior John Andrade (Avon, Conn.\/Notre Dame) was fourth in the 3-meter and fifth in the 1-meter to grab valuable points for NU.<\/p>\n
Day two of action at the Kentucky quad dual begins bright and early tomorrow morning with an 8 a.m. CT\/9 a.m. ET start time.<\/p>\n