Oct. 31, 2013
SWIMMING AND DIVING VS. INDIANA AND TENNESSEE
When: Friday, Nov. 1 at 1 p.m.
Where:
Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center, Bloomington, Ind.
Live Stats: Swimming | Diving
Video Preview: Jorgensen Previews Indiana, Tennessee
Additional Info: Twitter | Facebook
LEXINGTON, Ky. – After recording its first wins of the season last week, the University of Kentucky swimming and diving program returns to the road for a tri-meet against two top-10 teams in Indiana and fellow SEC foe Tennessee Friday in Bloomington, Ind.
Diving events will commence at 1 p.m. ET at the Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center, while swimming events are scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. Live results can be found at IUHoosiers.com for the swimming competition, and live diving results can be found at DiveMeets.com.
“We want to swim against really good teams and Indiana and Tennessee certainly are among the best,” UK head coach Lars Jorgensen said. “Indiana will be a hard matchup, they are really well coached, and Tennessee is also a good team, they’re coming off a good year. It’s going to be a fun battle, and we really hope to be competitive in some races. It’s great to swim against some teams that are better than us right now, because that really prepares us well for the SEC and NCAA Championships. It’s the last dual meet of the semester, so we’re excited to see what we can do.”
The Wildcats are coming off a tri-meet Oct. 24-25 against Missouri and Southern Illinois in Carbondale, Ill., where the Wildcats earned their first wins of the season. The UK women beat both the Salukis and Tigers, while the men posted a win over SIU and lost to MU.
The UT men and women are both ranked eighth nationally, while the IU men are men are ranked ninth and the women 10th. The UK men are receiving votes in the latest College Swimming Coaches Association of America poll.
SCOUTING INDIANA AND TENNESSEE
The No. 10 Indiana women, who are 2-2 on the season, are coming off a 1-1 tri-meet Oct. 25, with a 181-119 win over Michigan and a 17-point loss to Texas. After a third-place finish at the Dennis Start Relays to open the season, the Hoosiers defeated Auburn and lost to Notre Dame in the season’s first tri-meet. IU also finished second at the SMU Classic on Oct. 18-19.
The No. 9 Indiana men are 0-4, but have competed against four of the nation’s top five teams, with dual meets against top-ranked Texas, No. 3 California, No. 4 Texas and No. 5 Stanford.
The eighth-ranked Tennessee women are 3-0 on the year, with victories at UNC-Wilmington, at home vs. South Carolina and at No. 12 Louisville. The Volunteers are coming off a third-place finish at last year’s NCAA Championships.
The Tennessee men, who are also ranked eighth, are 2-1 in dual meets this season, with a win at UNC-Wilmington and at home vs. No. 25 South Carolina before a loss at No. 13 Louisville on Oct. 24.
LAST TIME OUT: VS. MISSOURI AND SOUTHERN ILLINOIS
UK posted its first wins of the season with a sweep by the women and a split from the men against Missouri and Southern Illinois Oct. 24-25 at SIU. The Kentucky women swept both SIU and Mizzou, with a 228-218 victory over the Tigers and a 310-138 win over the Salukis. The Wildcat men posted a 312-136 win against SIU but suffered a 267.5-177.5 defeat to MU.
On Oct. 24, junior Christina Bechtel won two individual competitions and a third as part of the 400 yard freestyle relay. Freshmen accounted for six wins, including two each from Brandon Flynn and Kendal Casey. Freshman Andrew Aviotti and Galyer also tallied their first collegiate victories, while junior Abby Myers won one.
On Oct. 25, senior Eric Bruck, Casey, Flynn and Myers each posted two wins. Galyer recorded a first-place finish after her first collegiate victory the previous night. Bruck’s second win was part of a relay, with fellow senior Chris Lott, junior Derrick Smith and senior Will Heidler.
A full recap from Oct. 24’s action can be found here, while the final day’s recap is here.
UP NEXT: OHIO STATE INVITATIONAL
After three weeks off, the Wildcats return to the road for the Ohio State Invitational, Nov. 22-24 in Columbus, Ohio. In addition to UK and No. 11/19 OSU, the three-day meet will feature No. 2 Florida, Virginia and the Purdue women.
SEC HONORS BECHTEL, FERRUCCI AND FLYNN
The Wildcats have been honored with three Southeastern Conference Athlete of the Week honors to begin the season. Freshman Brandon Flynn was named the Freshman of the Week on Oct. 29, while junior swimmer Christina Bechtel and senior diver Greg Ferrucci were honored with the season’s first Athlete the Week awards on Oct. 15.
Flynn was named the SEC’s Male Freshman Swimmer of the Week for the first time in his career after he won all four events he competed in against Missouri and Southern Illinois over two days. Flynn recorded his first collegiate win in the men’s 400 individual medley, and, eight events later, he returned to the water to win the men’s 500 freestyle. The next day, Flynn won the 1,000 yard freestyle in 9:21.94 before leading the way as the UK men finished one-two-three in the 500 yard freestyle.
Ferrucci, who has won all four diving events to open the year, was named the SEC’s Male Diver of the Week for the eighth time in his career. Ferrucci recorded wins in all four competitions to start the season. At Georgia on Sept. 25, he notched victories in the 1- and 3-meter dives, while the senior swept the diving events again at home against Ohio State on Oct. 11.
Bechtel earned her first career SEC Female Swimmer of the Week honor after a two-win performance Oct. 11 against Ohio State.
On the strengths of two wins in the butterfly against Ohio State, Bechtel was ranked second nationally in the 100-yard butterfly after she finished first with a time of 54.34. Bechtel, an NCAA qualifier last year, also posted a win in the 200-yard butterfly against the Buckeyes.
THE WILDCATS AGAINST THE SEC
Through the first three meets of the 2013 season, two UK swimmers have posted times that rank within the top five fastest in the Southeastern Conference this season.
In the women’s 100 butterfly, junior Christina Bechtel notched the league’s top time, with a 53.71 on Oct. 4 against Missouri and Southern Illinois.
Eric Bruck’s 20.18 against Ohio State is the second fastest time in the men’s 50 freestyle.
THE JORGENSEN FILE
Lars Jorgensen is in his first season as head coach at Kentucky after serving as an associate head coach for the Wildcats last season. A 1988 Olympian and standout student-athlete at the University of Tennessee, Jorgensen served as interim head coach for his alma mater in 2011-12. He also spent time on the coaching staffs at Toledo and LSU.
As a student-athlete at UT, Jorgensen holds the school record in the 1,000 freestyle, set in 1992. He earned a silver medal at the 1993 SEC Championships in the 1,650 freestyle and helped the Volunteers to a third-place finish.
At the 1988 Summer Olympic Games in Seoul, Jorgensen placed ninth in the 1,500-meter freestyle. His brother Daniel also competed in 1988, making them the second pair of brothers to participate in an Olympics. Daniel returned to the Olympics in 1992 and won a bronze medal as part of the 800 freestyle team, while their father, Niels, was an Olympic wrestler for Denmark.
RETURNING STARPOWER
UK returns all four student-athletes that competed at the 2013 Men’s and Women’s NCAA Championships. Senior diver Greg Ferrucci is coming off fourth-place finishes in all three NCAA events and became the first diver to earn First-Team All-America honors in one season on the 1 meter, 3 meter and platform. Senior John Fox and juniors Christina Bechtel and Christa Cabot made their first NCAA appearance in 2013.
2013-14 CAPTAINS ANNOUNCED
Seniors John Fox and Maclin Simpson and junior Michael Christian were named captains of the UK men’s team, while juniors Christina Bechtel, Christa Cabot and Lindsay Hill were announced as captains of the women’s squad.
A LOOK AT THE 2013-14 SCHEDULE
The 2013-14 campaign features dual or tri meets with five SEC foes and two home competitions. In addition to Oct. 11’s home opener against Ohio State, the Wildcats welcome Cincinnati to Lexington on Feb. 1 at noon at the Lancaster Aquatics Center on the UK campus.
The 2014 SEC Championships will be held Feb. 18-22 in Athens, Ga. The NCAA Women’s Championship will be in Minneapolis, Minn., March 20-23, while the men’s national championship will be March 27-30 in Austin, Texas.
The complete 2013-14 schedule can be found here.
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.
