BATON ROUGE, La. – Kentucky swimming and diving fell short to the LSU Tigers on Friday, as Wildcats Esteban Nunez Del Prado and Falemana Tuufui reach new program top ten times. The No. 14 LSU men just outscored No. 21 Kentucky, 159-141, and the No. 21 Tiger women defeated the Wildcats 203-97.

The dual meet was highlighted by the two newcomers who cracked the most recent version of the men’s program top ten times. Tuufui, who was the event winner in both the 50 and 100 freestyle race on Wednesday against Indiana, notched the seventh best program time in the 50 free at LSU with a time of 19.55. With this top ten time, Tuufui was only defeated by the Tiger swimmer Jere Hribar, who set pool records in both the 50 free and 100 free on Friday. Nunez Del Prado, the other newcomer, soared to a victory in the 100 butterfly in 46.78. This is the fourth fastest time in program history on the men’s side at Kentucky.

For more success on the men’s team, it was senior captain Ryan Merani who scored 19 points for the Wildcats. Merani was the event winner in the 200 IM (1:46.67) and 200 fly (1:45.21), also placing fifth in the 200 back (1:48.08).

Another senior captain in Levi Sandidge was an event winner, edging out event runner-up Carson Hick (9:00.11), in the 1000 freestyle in 8:57.98.

On the diving side, sophomore Avery Giese was an event winner, taking home the 1M win with a score of 292.58 to get the Wildcats some points. Devynn Bishop finished second in both the 1M (273.08) & 3M (262.80). Additionally, in the 1M, all four women’s dive Wildcats went 1, 2, 3, 4 for the 1M sweep.

On the women’s side, Libby Grether finished event runner-up in the 1000 free (9:51.34), senior captain Grace Frericks did the same in the 100 back (54.02) as did senior Fernanda de Goeij in the 200 back (1:54.88) and 200 IM (2:00.06).

Although a tough meet for the Wildcats, there was an overall trend of improved times in just the second meet in two days for both the men & women. Kentucky swimming & diving now looks toward the next dual meet down the road at Louisville on Nov. 6 at 4 p.m.

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