Nov. 14, 2012
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Kentucky men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams travel to Knoxville, Tenn., to compete in the Tennessee Invite Thursday to compete in a three-day event against Tennessee, Duke and Colorado State. After not competing last weekend, the Wildcats are excited to get back into the pool for the final event of their fall season.
“We are looking forward to the format of this meet,” said Kentucky swimming head coach Gary Conelly. “It will be the NCAA order with preliminaries and finals. It is an excellent opportunity to gauge our progress and pick up some NCAA cuts.”
The Tennessee Invite will incorporate a championship-style format to be spread out over a three-day span in which both the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams will compete. It will be the first opportunity for the divers to compete from the platform this season.
Kentucky has already seen Tennessee this year when the Wildcats hosted the Volunteers and Indiana in their first meet of the season at the Lancaster Aquatic Center. Since then, Kentucky has traveled to Columbia, Mo., to face Missouri, Arkansas and Southern Illinois. The Wildcats then hosted defending Southeastern Conference champions Auburn in their most recent meet.
The Kentucky women (1-5, 0-2 SEC) will face stiff competition this weekend. Both Tennessee’s and Duke’s women’s teams have perfect 5-0 records on the season. Colorado State is winless in their five dual meets this season.
Conelly expects senior Megan Eppler and junior Lucas Gerotto to have strong performances this weekend. Each have had strong seasons to this point with Eppler having strong showings in the 50-freestyle and 100-freestyles and Gerotto owning the eighth-fastest 100-butterfly time (49.25) in the conference. Gerotto has not lost a 100-butterfly event this season.
The Kentucky men (1-4, 0-2 SEC) take on Duke (1-3) and Tennessee (3-2, 1-0 SEC). Colorado State does not have a men’s swimming or diving team.
Prelims for the Tennessee Invitational begin each day at 10 a.m. ET with finals following at 6 p.m. ET.
Stay tuned to UKathletics.com for more news on the Tennessee Invitational and the UK swimming and diving teams.
