July 6, 2009

BELGRADE – Appearing in his first event of the 25th Universidad, UK senior swimmer Eric McGinnis helped the United States tap in first place overall and set a new championship record in the 4×100 freestyle relay Sunday night.

McGinnis took the third leg in the relay and helped the US out-touch second place finisher Italy down the final stretch as the US edged out the Italians by 1.33 seconds.

The United States captured gold in the event with a winning time of 3:14.74, which becomes the new World University Games record. Joining McGinnis on the podium was Christopher Brady, William Copeland and Douglas Robison.

McGinnis secured America’s lead with a 49.71 split on the third leg leaving way for the anchor leg to close out the victory.

The final eight relay teams finished in this order: USA, Italy, France, Canada, Russian Federation, Switzerland, Ukraine and Australia.

McGinnis is slated to reprsent the USA in three more events this week at the WUG. His lone individual event, the 50-free, and then he will also be a member of the 4×200 freestyle relay and the 4×100 medley relay on the final day of competition.

McGinnis holds the seventh seed in the 50-free slated for the second to last day of competition.

UK’s senior will also be blogging from Serbia for Kentucky’s official website. Follow along with McGinnis at his blog “0 to 60 with McGinnis.”

Stay tuned to UKathletics.com for complete up-to-date information regarding the Kentucky swimming and diving teams.