Photo Courtesy: Kentucky Athletics<\/p>\n
NASHVILLE – The Kentucky women’s swimming and diving team kicked off the new year on a winning note, topping Vanderbilt by a score of 170-92 on Friday afternoon. Kendra Crew, Danielle Galyer and Christina Bechtel each won two individual events to pace the Wildcats.<\/p>\n
Fueled by two individual wins by sophomores Kendra Crew and Danielle Galyer and senior Christina Bechtel, the Kentucky women\u2019s swimming team opened the new year with a 170-92 victory at Vanderbilt Friday.<\/p>\n
The Wildcats won 11 of the 14 events, including five 1-2 finishes and a pair of contests where UK claimed each of the top three spots. Freshman Bridgette Alexander, sophomore Kelly Berger and senior Abby Myers also notched wins in Nashville, while Galyer and Myers both swam in both of Kentucky\u2019s two relay victories.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we swam well today,\u201d UK head coach Lars Jorgensen said. \u201cKendra Crew was probably the star of the meet, she did a really nice job. Freshman Bridgette Alexander had some career-best times, so that was good to see. Consistently across the board I was pleased with the progress we\u2019ve made. Vanderbilt is a much-improved SEC team, so any time you can get a win in this conference is good for the Wildcats.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kentucky opened the competition with a 1-2 finish in the 200 medley relay. Galyer, Crew, Bechtel and Myers finished in 1:44.03 to lead UK, while Alexander, senior Sam Shaheen, sophomore Morgan Contino and senior Kristen Wilson placed second in 1:45.75. The first and second place finish gave the Wildcats an early lead, and they never looked back.<\/p>\n
Berger and freshman Aubrey Jones added a first and second place finish, respectively, in the very next race, the 1,000 freestyle. Berger touched the wall with a season-best time of 10:07.99, while Jones posted a 10:15.50.<\/p>\n
In the day\u2019s fourth event, the 100 backstroke, Galyer, Alexander and freshman Alyssa Ruffing helped the Wildcats to their first one-two-three finish of the competition. Galyer posted the win in 56.18, while Alexander was second in 56.28 and Ruffing third in 57.78.<\/p>\n
Crew tallied her first individual win in the next event with a 1:04.45 to win the 100 breaststroke. Bechtel and Myers followed with a sweep of the top two spots in the 200 butterfly, with a 1:58.32 and a 1:59.20, respectively. The win by Bechtel gave Kentucky five victories in the first six events.<\/p>\n
Two events later, Bechtel again touched the wall in first with a 52.06 to win the 100 freestyle. Alexander secured her first win in the next event, the 200 backstroke. The freshman recorded a 2:00.16 to win by over three seconds.<\/p>\n
Crew posted her second win of the meet in the 200 breaststroke, thanks to a win by 4.61 seconds in the 200 breaststroke. The sophomore earned the win with a 2:17.34.<\/p>\n
UK recorded another 1-2-3 finish in the 500 freestyle, with Galyer, Wilson and Berger. Galyer won with a 4:57.18 in her season debut in the event, while Wilson finished second in 5:02.22, just ahead of Berger\u2019s 5:02.28.<\/p>\n
Myers swam to her first individual win of the meet with a 54.20 to win the 100 butterfly. The senior beat out Vanderbilt\u2019s second-place swimmer by 1.46 seconds.<\/p>\n
Kentucky closed the meet with a win in the 400 freestyle relay. Galyer, Myers, senior Blair Kuethe and sophomore Lindsay Shultz finished in 3:28.95.<\/p>\n
The UK men and the divers continue the weekend Saturday at Virginia Tech. Live results can be found at Swimmeet.christiansburg.org, while HokieSports.com will also have live video of Saturday\u2019s meet.<\/p>\n
The Wildcats return home for an in-state clash with Louisville on Jan. 24. The Senior Day contest begins at Noon, ET with diving, while swimming commences at 1 p.m.<\/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
Saturday the Vanderbilt swim team hopped back in the pool for SEC competition to begin their second half of the season. The Commodores fell to the Kentucky Wildcats 170-92, but garnered 16 top-three finishes, and swam to first place finishes in three events.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought they did really well with coming back from training\u201d, said assistant coach Angie Nicolletta. They were pretty spot on as far as timing goes for where we should be. We\u2019re getting ready for SECs so we have to get serious. We\u2019re getting down to the wire so what they do all season, those times, set them up for their placement at SECs. So the faster they go the better placement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Summer Brown, a freshman, carried over her successes in the first half of the season in the 200-yard freestyle. Brown currently owns the Vanderbilt event record after swimming a time of 1:48.82 at the Georgia Invite. The Kokoma, Ind., native took home the first place finish yet again Saturday against the wildcats with a time of 1:51.10.<\/p>\n
In the seventh event of the day senior Caroline Thomas and freshman Brenda Cha both swam to first place finishes with a time of 24.15, a rare occurrence which brought in 6.5 points a piece for the \u2018Dores.<\/p>\n
Senior Elly Faulker and sophomore Rachel Koch swam to first and third place finishes for the Commodores in the 400 Free IM; accumulating 12 points for the teams total.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe team usually swims a little faster in the second semester. Their goals are the same all season long, and as they achieve their goals they get faster. The main goal is always SECS. So we\u2019re just looking ahead to swimming at Auburn.<\/p>\n
With SECs just around the corner, tomorrow the Commodores continue conference action as they host Arkansas and honor their senior class at 11 a.m.<\/p>\n