Swim & Dive Sees Highs & Lows in First Meet of the Season
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Kentucky swimming & diving started their 2024-25 season on the road this afternoon in the season’s first meet featuring both the men’s and women’s teams. Final tallies at the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion finished at 191-107 on the men’s side. The women, who also faced Akron alongside the Buckeyes finished 218-80 against the hosts and 172.5-127.5 against the Zips earning their first win of the season.
Despite the rocky scorelines, the Wildcats won six events today with Carson Hick and Ryan Merani earning the top spot on the podium in two events for the men’s side resulting in 36 points towards Kentucky’s total. The women bested the Zips in just about every event, including the 400 IM which Hayden Penny won, for 172 total points in the victory.
Hick took first in the 1000-yard and 500-yard freestyle, touching the wall in 9:02.15 and 4:24.87 respectively for the victories. Ryan Merani won the 200-yard butterfly (1:45.62) and was a member of the 400-yard freestyle relay (3:06.16) that took the top spot alongside Adomas Gatulis, Jack Haywood, and Bradley Boyd. Levi Sandidge earned his first event win of the season securing a 400-yard IM sweep with a time of 3:52.73. On the women’s side, freshman Hayden Penny won her first event as a collegiate athlete taking the 400 IM in 4:20.26 for the nine points.
UK also placed swimmers in the top three in several other events, including the men’s 200 medley relay, men’s 1000 freestyle (Sandidge 2nd; 9:03.85), men’s 100 backstroke (Devin Naoroz 3rd; 49.18), men’s 100 breaststroke (Jonathan Rom 3rd; 55.99), and women’s 200 butterfly (Billie Sherratt 3rd; 2:03.37).
On the boards, Devynn Bishop and Avery Giese wasted no time posting NCAA zone standard scores, achieving 1-meter and 3-meter marks. Bishop reached the 3-meter mark of 280 points after scoring 284.55 points in a third-place finish while Giese hit the 1-meter mark of 265 points with a score of 265.55 in a fourth-place finish.
Kentucky returns home next Friday, October 25th, for a dual meet with West Virginia. The meet will start at 2 p.m., and admission is free to the public.
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