UK Swimmers, Divers Eager to Compete in Blue, White Scrimmage
**Results are not made available for the Blue-White scrimmage.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – More than six months after the cancellation of the 2020 NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships, the University of Kentucky swimming and diving program is taking the competition pool for the annual intrasquad scrimmage on Friday, October 2 at 3 p.m. ET inside the Lancaster Aquatic Center.
The program will adopt a no spectator attendance plan for the Blue-White meet, and UK Athletics will continue to evaluate this plan as the season progresses.
“We’re so fortunate and excited to be back in a competitive environment,” said head coach Lars Jorgensen. “It’s been a long time coming for our program, like so many others, but thanks to the leadership of our department and our conference, we’re grateful to be back in the pool. This meet is always a lot of fun, the team gets really into it, and the coaching staff is looking forward to seeing where this group is at before the season gets started.”
The scrimmage, which marks the start of Jorgensen’s eighth season as head coach of the program, gives each student-athlete an opportunity to compete. Popularly pegged as one of the most enjoyable events on the schedule, the Blue-White meet offers a competitive setting combined with a fun, internal rivalry among the squads. The scrimmage will prepare the team ahead of a five-month stretch of regular season meets, before the postseason begins in February 2021.
The program of 64 swimmers and divers features 41 returners (18 men, 23 women) and 23 newcomers (nine men, 14 women). The men’s team returns nine scorers from the 2020 Southeastern Conference Championships, while the women’s team returns 10 scorers from the conference meet, including eight 2020 NCAA Championship invitees.
“We have a great group and a big team of divers this season,” head diving coach Ted Hautau said. “We are excited to have four newcomers with us this season – Sam Duncan, Rodrigo Romero, Van McKinley and Flanary Patterson – to add to the strong group of returners. We are really early in the season right now, especially with so much time off, but we have a great training crew this year, and we are getting our fundamentals down. I am excited about this group; they have great energy.”
Kyndal Knight and Danny Zhang return to the diving board for their junior season after being crowed conference champions – 3-meter and platform, respectively – at the league meet last season. Overall, the program will feature seven medalists from the league meet last season (two men, five women).
More information about the 2020-21 Kentucky swimming and diving schedule will be available soon.
For the latest on the Kentucky swimming and diving program, follow @UKSwimDive on Twitter and on Instagram, on Facebook and on the web at UKathletics.com.
