Kentucky Women Win Ohio State Invitational
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The No. 17 Kentucky women’s swimming and diving showed its depth and versatility this weekend, defeating three ranked teams to win the Ohio State Invitational for the first time in program history. UK topped three ranked teams No. 12 NC State, No. 23 Ohio State and No. 18 Notre Dame, defeating eight teams in total.
The Kentucky men’s team finished fourth overall with 400.5 points. NC State took home the men’s team victory with 1,118.5 points.
“Overall, it was a really good weekend,” said head coach Lars Jorgensen. “The girls were phenomenal, and winning the meet was fantastic. We’ve never won a meet of this stature, so that is very exciting. I’m also really proud of our guys team. Isaac Jones, Seb, Glen, those three really stood out and performed well.
“The goal of this meet was really to get as many people qualified for NCAAs, and we did get quite a few. We’ll have a few more to qualify later in the season, but really could not have asked for a better meet.”
The Wildcat women started the evening on a good note, posting a 1-2-3 finish in the 200-yard backstroke. Sophomore Asia Seidt led the charge with an NCAA automatic qualifying time of 1:50.67, followed by senior Bridgette Alexander (1:52.16) and sophomore Ali Galyer (1:53.16).
Seidt’s time in the 200 back was her second NCAA ‘A’ cut of the meet after going 1:53.84 in the 200 IM on Friday, which was a meet record and school record.
In the 200 breast, freshman Bailey Bonnett reset the school record twice on Sunday. The Pittsburgh native first went 2:08.80 in the prelims to take the top seed before cutting that down by almost a full second in finals to 2:07.83. Bonnet was one of three Wildcats in the A final of the event as sophomore Madison Winstead finished third in 2:09.35 and senior Morgan Belli came in fourth in 2:10.69.
The men’s team’s performance was highlighted by senior Isaac Jones, who lowered his own school record in the 1,650 freestyle to 14:48.61 and finished third overall in the event. His previous UK record was 14:57.77. The record was one of three school standards he lowered over the weekend.
Sophomore Glen Brown was another highlight for the men’s team, picking up a sixth place finish in the 200 breast with a time of 1:58.74. That time puts him at No. 5 in the UK record books in the event.
While the full team won’t be back in action until 2018, select Kentucky student-athletes will head back to Columbus, Nov. 29-30, for the USA Swimming Winter Nationals. Additionally, the Kentucky divers will travel to Oxford, Ohio, for the Miami Diving Invitational Nov. 30-Dec. 1.
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.
