Wildcats Fall to Tennessee and Indiana in Knoxville
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The Kentucky swimming and diving program dropped its first road meet of the season on Friday afternoon, falling to Indiana and Tennessee. The No. 15 UK women’s team (2-2, 1-1 SEC) tightly competed, but ultimately fell to the No. 12 Volunteers 170-130 and the No. 8 Hoosiers 155-145. The men’s team (1-2, 0-1 SEC) was defeated by top-ranked IU 223-77, and by No. 15 Tennessee 216-84.
“A little disappointed with how we performed today,” said head coach Lars Jorgensen. “We had to be really good today against two really good programs and we were just kind of average. Average doesn’t win.”
“Ali Galyer was awesome today and Asia Seidt was great, turning in some of her best in-season times that she’s ever done. So, those were kind of the stand-outs on the women’s side. I thought Glen Brown and Jason Head competed well today for the men today. So there’s always some positives, but we need to be a little better top to bottom and we’ll get a chance to do that next week.”
Seidt was a top contributor for the women’s team, posting three individual victories and as many NCAA ‘B’ cuts in the outing. The sophomore swept the backstroke events in the process, first winning the 100-yard backstroke in 53.33 before taking the 200 back in 1:55.98. Her final individual win came in the 200 individual medley, with a time of 1:58.83.
Galyer had a pair of wins in the meet, touching the wall first in both the 200- and 500-yard freestyle races. In the 200 free, the sophomore out-touched IU’s Kennedy Goss to take the victory with a ‘B’ cut time of 1:47.57. She also edged out Goss in the 500, winning with a time of 4:50.81.
Junior captain Geena Freriks added a victory for the women’s team in the 1000 free, coming in at 9:58.23. She also added a third-place finish in the 500 free with a time of 4:54.30.
On the men’s side, Brown had a second-place finish in the 200 free with a time of 1:38.25, coming in only behind Olympic gold medalist Blake Pieroni from Indiana. Sophomore Jason Head came in third behind Brown in the 200 at 1:39.06. Brown added a fourth-place finish in the 200 IM with a time of 1:50.30.
In a stacked men’s diving field that included five All-Americans, two NCAA national champions and Oympians, junior captain Seb Masterton led the UK men on both the 1- and 3-meter springboards. He turned in a fourth-place finish on 1-meter with a score of 369.00, and finished fifth on 3-meter at 358.05.
The Wildcats will be back in action Nov. 3-4, traveling to Carbondale, Illinois, to take on Southern Illinois, Northwestern and Missouri in a two-day quad meet, Nov. 3-4.
For the latest on the Kentucky swimming and diving program, follow @UKSwimDive on Twitter, on Facebook at Facebook.com/UKSwimDive, and on the web at UKathletics.com.
