Nov. 17, 2011
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The University of Kentucky swimming and diving teams saw more success today in the second day of the three-day University of Tennessee Invitational in the Jones Aquatic Center in Knoxville, Tenn., powered by swims from Megan Eppler, Cristina Bechtel, Matt Russell, and Chris Lott.
“We’ve had some great swims,” UK head coach Gary Conelly said. “Megan Eppler was really outstanding in the 50-freestyle and Christina Bechtel was great in the 100-butterfly. I wish we were qualifying more for the night swims because our night swims have been very good.”
As a team, Kentucky sits in fifth place overall, tallying 575.5 points so far through the 18 events that have been completed. The leader of the meet is Louisville, who has an overall team score of 1169.5. Tennessee, LSU and Arkansas are also among Southeastern Conference teams in the meet that are in the top six as a team so far through the two days of completion.
Matt Russell swam a 55.86 in the 100-yard breaststroke today, just less than a half of a second off of his career-best time of 55.34 in the event.
UK head coach Gary Conelly described Travis Green as having `the meet of his life’. Green swam a 4:26.26 in the 500-freestyle, and today finished fourth in the 400-individual medley, posting a time of 3:59.48, grabbing 15 points for the Wildcats.
On the diving boards, Greg Ferrucci continued his stellar season for the Blue and White with a second-place finish in the one-meter dive, posting a score of 366.00. Ferrucci was joined in the top-15 by John Fox and Zach Peterson for UK.
“Greg Ferrucci has shined both days for us, and we are looking for a strong finish to the meet tomorrow.” Conelly said.
Christina Bechtel had another great meet for UK, as Bechtel posted a 54.16 in the 100-butterfly, good enough for a top-ten finish. Bechtel yesterday posted many quality finishes for UK as well, making her one of the standouts in the meet for the Wildcats.
Christa Cabot posted a 271.90 in the three-meter diving competition, placing in the top-10 in the meet. Cabot was accompanied by Sarah Chewning and Lindsay Keahey in the top-20, who posted scored of 238.90 and 211.90 respectfully.
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