Nov. 15, 2012
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The Kentucky men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams finished up the first day of the Volunteer Invite Thursday evening with both the men sitting in second place and the women sitting in third place through the first round of competition in the championship-style meet. Kentucky’s men (279) trail Tennessee (404) but leads Duke (211), while the women (193) sit behind Tennessee (427) and Duke (228) but ahead of Colorado State (176).
Both the men and women struggled through the preliminary rounds earlier in the day during Session 1, but each had strong individual efforts in the evening during the second session.
No diving events were scheduled for the first session of the day, but Kentucky sophomore diver Christa Cabot shined in the night cap. Cabot took first place in the 3-meter springboard event, scoring a season and team-high 338.25, besting her previous high of 308.05. Fellow sophomore Sarah Chewning claimed fourth place in the event with a season-high 305.30.
“We had a solid first day,” said Kentucky head diving coach Ted Hautau. “For where we are in the season, I thought we had some nice performances. Christa Cabot picked up a good win tonight on 3m and she and Sarah Chewning went season best scores on 3m.”
Junior Greg Ferrucci continued adding to his season’s win total, taking the men’s 1-meter springboard event with a final score of 369.95, which is just .10 points off his season-high for the event. Senior John Fox took fourth place with a score of 327.80.
Zack Peterson and Colby Coleman qualified for the NCAA Zone Diving championship with their scores in the 1-meter event.
The women’s swimming team earned a third place finish in the 200-freestyle relay in the first event of Session 2. Mandy Myers, Christina Bechtel, Laura Dawson and Megan Eppler combined for the third-place time of 1:34.92. The men’s team followed with a third place of their own as Lucas Gerotto, Cameron Hyde, Will Heidler and Chris Lott earned a final time of 1:22.24.
Sophomore Julia Gerotto picked up a third-place finish and a season-low time of 4:57.89 in the 500-freestyle in the first individual event of the night.
Freshman Matt Roman followed up on the men’s side of the 500-freestyle with a second place time of 4:33.09. Roman’s time was good for his personal best of the season and is good for a team-low time in the event this season.
Roman continued his strong evening with a third-place finish in the 200-individual medley earning a final time of 1:52.90, another season individual and team-low.
The night wrapped up with the 400-medley relays. Once again, the women picked up another third-place finish as Laura Dawson, Sam Shaheen, Christina Bechtel and Megan Eppler earned a final time of 3:48.43.
Kentucky will be back in the pool Friday morning at the Jones Aquatic Center on the campus of the University of Tennessee with Session 3 getting started at 10 a.m. ET with the men’s and women’s 400-individual medley preliminaries.
For more updates on the Volunteer Invitational continue to check UKAthletics.com for the latest news and results.
