KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Kentucky freshmen Asia Seidt and Madison Winstead each came away with medals on the penultimate day of the 2017 Southeastern Conference Championships inside the Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center on Friday night. Seidt took bronze in the 100 backstroke and Winstead won silver in the 100 breaststroke.
Each of their times now represent the fastest in program history in the respective events. In the 100 back, Seidt went 51.40 to best Danielle Galyer’s previous record of 51.44 set at the NCAA Championships a season ago. Winstead touched the wall in 59.86 to become the first the Wildcat woman to record a time below a minute in the event.
The freshmen’s medal-winning swims were just two of the four school records set on Friday night, as the Wildcats also set new standards in both the men’s and women’s 400 medley relay. On the women’s side, Galyer, Winstead, Seidt and Geena Freriks teamed up to swim an NCAA automatic qualifying time of 3:32.30 to finish fourth. For the men, Walker Thaning, Wyatt Amdor, Kyle Higgins and Sean Gunn went 3:11.19 to lower the record by nine-hundredths of a second.
“It was another great day for us,” said head coach Lars Jorgensen. “To finish the day with two school record in those last relays for both the girls and the guys was fantastic. Madison and Asia were both fantastic. The future looks bright. They’re both warriors and they really fought hard. Tomorrow’s a big day for everybody, so we need to finish strong.”
The evening began with the women’s 200 butterfly, where sophomore Haley McInerny went 1:56.89 to win the B final and finish ninth overall with a personal record. McInerny’s time was the seventh-fastest in the finals overall. Freshman Kierston Farley-Sepe also won the C final in the event, posting a huge personal record with a time of 1:57.35, moving her up to fourth in the event inside UK’s record book.
In the men’s 200 fly, Higgins earned the top time for the Wildcats, finishing 11th overall with a time of 1:43.93. Sophomore Matthew Beach and junior Jacob Smith competed in the C final of the event. Beach went 1:44.65 to place 19th overall, and Smith touched the wall in 1:45.52 to take 23rd.
Seidt was joined in the 100 back championship final by Galyer, who swam a 52.53 to finish sixth and earn important points for the Wildcats. Junior Bridgette Alexander competed in the B final of the event, where she placed third in the heat with a time of 53.00.
Senior Kendra Crew made the B final of the women’s 100 breast, where she placed 11th overall with a time of 1:01.06.
On the platform, senior diver Becca Hamperian advanced to the finals for the second straight year after posting a score of 272.65 in the prelims. In the finals, Hamperian bettered her score, earning a 274.05 to place fifth overall to improve on last year’s performance at the meet where she placed sixth in the finals with a 252.20 tally.
With one day left at the meet, the Wildcat women have moved into fourth with 659 points and the men are in 10th with 321.5 points.
Tomorrow will follow the same schedule as previous days. Prelims are set for a 10 a.m. ET start, diving prelims at 1 p.m. and finals will begin at 6 p.m. Tomorrow’s events will include the 1650 free, 200 back, 100 free, 200 breast, men’s platform and 400 free relay.
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