Masterton Earns Bronze on Day One of SEC Championships
COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Junior diver Seb Masterton picked up Kentucky’s first medal of the 2018 Southeastern Conference Championships on Wednesday evening, taking the bronze medal on the 3-meter springboard. The performance helped put the men’s team in third place heading into day two with 151 points. The Kentucky women’s team sits in eighth place following day one with 113 points.
“It was a great day for the Cats getting started,” said head coach Lars Jorgensen. “The women had one ‘A’ cut, which is our goal. The men got a brand new school record which I’m really proud of, but really the highlight of today was having two divers in the men’s 3-meter final. Both Seb and Kevin (Frebel) were awesome and Seb really battled back. That guy’s got a lot of heart and character. It’s a long meet, but so far we’re off to a good start and looking forward to being really good tomorrow morning.”
Masterton’s 3-meter score of 426.05 was just shy of his personal best of 428.15. The junior captain was joined in the championship final by sophomore Kevin Frebel, who finished seventh in the event with a score of 378.60. Frebel’s performance marked his first in a conference final after finishing 20th in both the 1-meter and platform events last season. Freshman Chase Lane also scored in the event, finishing 16th with a score of 334.15. The three combined to score 61 points for the men’s team.
“It feels great to get it on the first one,” said Masterton. “After everything I’ve been through this season, not training as much as I would’ve liked to because of injuries, it feels great to know that I’ve still got it and I’m looking forward to the rest of the competition.”
On the women’s side, sophomore Emma Dellmore was the first to score for UK, finishing 14th in the 1-meter springboard diving prelims with a score of 266.05.
The Kentucky women nabbed their first NCAA automatic qualifying time of the meet in the 800 freestyle relay as Ali Galyer, Asia Seidt, Haley McInerny and Geena Freriks combined to go 7:00.21 to finish just shy of the podium with a fourth-place showing. In the women’s 200 medley relay, Bridgette Alexander, Bailey Bonnett, Seidt and Freriks teamed up to finish sixth with a time of 1:37.24.
The men finished eighth in the 200 medley relay, as Josh Swart, Wyatt Amdor, David Dingess and Peter Wetzlar posted a time of 1:25.69 in the race. The Wildcats ended the evening on a high note, recording a new school record in the 800 freestyle relay with a time of 6:23.17 behind the efforts of Jason Head, Glen Brown, John Mitchell and Wetzlar. The mark was good for seventh place in the event.
For the remainder of the championships, the schedule will remain the same each day with prelims beginning at 11 a.m. ET and finals commencing at 7 p.m. Thursday’s schedule will include the 500 freestyle, 200 individual medley, 50 freestyle, men’s 1-meter diving and the 200 freestyle relay.
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