LEXINGTON, Ky.? The University of Kentucky men?s and women?s swimming teams will take part in the annual Janis Hape Dowd Nike Cup this week hosted by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The first events are slated to begin Thursday morning and run through Saturday evening.
The Nike Cup has become an annual early season event for the Wildcats allowing the team to take part in a championship-style meet in which preliminary heats take place in the morning to qualify for the finals that take place in the evening.
A year ago, 53 percent of the veteran swimmers bettered their own personal best times in at least one event, while 100 percent of the freshmen class earned at least one lifetime best mark.
Kentucky?s men?s and women?s squads are off to 2-2 records to open the season. There have been many early highlights including topping in-state rival Louisville in a dominating performance. At the Cardinals? pool UK set five pool records on their way to continuing a perfect record against UL under Head Coach Gary Conelly. Sophomore Eric McGinnis had a hand in three of the records set. He was the anchor leg of both of the winning relays, and then set his name atop the leaderboard in the 50-freestyle as well.
On the women?s side, sophomore Megan Pulskamp achieved a personal-best 200-butterfly score in a loss to Florida, bettering her own time set at the SEC Championships by almost a second.
Many of the freshmen swimmers have come on strong for the Wildcats. Winning events in their opening season are Jenna Newsome and Tyler Reed. Furthermore Lindsay Graessle, Lauryn Childress, Danielle Weiss, Kayla Sergesketter, Matt Barbiea, Reinhardt Strijdom, Max Clark, Kevin Knezevich, Chris Upchurch and Colin Faris have all made contributions in their inaugural collegiate season.
The UK divers will also be in action this weekend at the Hoosierland Open hosted by Indiana University. Head Coach Mike Lyden?s men and women have enjoyed tremendous early success.
Freshmen Stephen Andrews and Jessie Snowden have both been named SEC Diver of the Week once in just three weeks of competition. Andrews and Snowden have also already qualified for the Zone Diving competition that determines NCAA Championship participants. The first year athletes have additionally etched their names into UK record books with just four meets under their belts.
Complete coverage of both the swimming and diving action can be found upon completion of the day?s events at UKathletics.com.
