Oct. 11, 2013
LEXINGTON, Ky. – On the strength of victories in all four diving competitions, the University of Kentucky swimming and diving team won nine events, but lost its home opener to Ohio State Friday evening in front of a capacity crowd at the Lancaster Aquatics Center.
The UK men lost 176-122, while the women fell to OSU by a 195-104 margin. The meet marked the home debut for first-year head coach Lars Jorgensen.
“I thought we fought hard,” UK head coach Lars Jorgensen said. “We lacked in a little bit of depth to compete against a very good Ohio State team. We had some bright spots from our captains and are leaders on our team, and it was nice to see the freshman with some strong performances. We need more people to contribute, we just ran out of steam at the end.”
Senior Greg Ferrucci and junior Christa Cabot both swept the diving events, with top scores in the 1- and 3-meter springboard competitions. Ferrucci has won all four diving events he has competed in to open the season, while Cabot has claimed victories in three of her four events.
Junior Christina Bechtel also posted two wins, in the women’s 100 and 200 yard butterfly. Senior Maclin Simpson notched a first-place finish in the men’s 200 yard butterfly for his second win of the season. Eric Bruck and Lucas Gerotto, both seniors, rounded out UK’s victories with wins in the men’s 50 freestyle and the men’s 100 yard butterfly, respectively.
“It was great having the meet at home as opposed to on the road,” Jorgensen said. “The fans were awesome today and we had a great crowd. We had a good time and are looking forward to getting better for our next meet in two weeks.”
UK garnered its first win of the competition in the women’s 200 yard butterfly, when Bechtel and fellow junior Abby Myers finished first and second, respectively. Bechtel touched the wall in 2:00.75, while Myers finished 0.25 seconds later, in 2:01.00. Myers’ time came nearly six seconds ahead OSU’s third-place finisher.
Simpson notched his second win of the season, with a 1:51.10 to claim the title in the men’s 200 yard butterfly. The senior finished 0.18 seconds ahead of Ohio State’s Tama Gercsak, who placed second, and 0.84 ahead of OSU’s third-place finisher.
In the men’s 50 yard freestyle, Bruck posted a first-place finish with a time of 20.18. In a tightly-contested race, the top three finishers, including UK senior Chris Lott in third, finished just 0.76 seconds apart.
Bechtel and Myers finished one-two again in the women’s 100 yard butterfly. Bechtel notched a 54.34, while Myers posted a time of 55.30. Bechtel registered the fastest split times in each of the two 50 yard segments, while Myers had the second-fastest times in each of the 50 yard sections.
Gerotto won his first race of the season with a 49.26 finish in the men’s 100 yard butterfly. The senior finished nearly one second ahead of the Buckeyes’ Garrett Trebilcock. Gerotto never trailed, and recorded the fastest split times in both 50 yard portions of the race.
In addition to one-two finishes in three events, the Wildcats notched second-place finishes in six additional competitions. Three of UK’s runner-up totals were from freshman.
First-year swimmer Brandon Flynn posted a runner-up finish in a highly-contested men’s 1,000 yard freestyle race. Flynn finished in 9:18.16, just 0.05 seconds behind OSU’s Jovan Mitrovic.
Two additional freshmen took home second-place finishes. Danielle Galyer posted a time of 2:03.80 in the women’s 200 yard backstroke, while Kendra Crew recorded a 2:22.99 finish in the women’s 200 yard breaststroke.
UK returns to the road Oct. 24 and 25 when it travels to Carbondale, Ill., to face Southern Illinois and fellow SEC foe Missouri. The competition will get underway at 5 p.m. ET on Oct. 24 and resume at 10 a.m. on the 25th.
For complete news and updates on the Kentucky Swimming and Diving program, go to UKathletics.com/SwimmingDiving. Breaking news, behind-the-scenes updates, photos and more can be found on Twitter at @UKSwimDive and Facebook at Facebook.com/UKSwimDive.
