Nov. 21, 2008
KNOXVILLE, TENN. – Sophomore Jessie Snowden continued her strong start to the season with a first place victory and career-best score in day three competitions at the Tennessee Invitational. Ten other Wildcat swimmers finished the day with top five victories, including four top three honors and seven career-best times.
Snowden posted a career-best score of 330.85 in the three-meter (six dives) event. Snowden also finished first in the preliminaries earlier in the day. The next closest competitor was 31 points below Snowden. This score was also a season-best for the Wildcats.
Also on the women’s side, Chatham Penrod and Claire Archibald finished third and fourth respectively in the 100-backstroke event for Kentucky. Penrod’s time of 56.05 is a season-best for Kentucky, while Archibald’s time was a career-best. Sophomore Lindsey Graessle posted a career-best and team season-best time in her third place finish in the 100-breaststroke. While in the 200-freestyle event, Haleigh Kerns took home the fourth place honor touching the wall just ahead of Kristina Sledge. Kern’s time of 1:51.64 was also a season-best for the Wildcats. Wrapping up the women’s honors was Megan Pulskamp. Pulskamp recorded a fourth place finish in the 100-butterfly event marking her second straight day with a top five finish.
For the men, Shane Eliason, Travis Muzzillo and Elvis Burrows finished third, fourth and fifth respectively each posting career-best times in the 100-butterfly. Eliason’s time of 48.06 is a season-best for Kentucky and only two seconds off UK’s all-time record set by teammate Warren Gobbelaar. Sophomore Tyler Reed had the other third place finish for the Wildcats as he posted a career-best time in the 200-freestyle. Reed’s time of 1:36.35 also qualified him as an NCAA “B” cut finalist. It was also the best Kentucky time in the event so far this year.
Kentucky will wrap up the Tennessee Invitational tomorrow. A complete recap of tomorrow’s events can be found at Kentucky’s homepage on UKathletics.com.
