UK S&D: Women’s Team Hosts Vanderbilt, Men’s Team Scrimmages
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Two weeks after hosting the annual intrasquad meet hopeful that a season would come to fruition, the University of Kentucky swimming and diving program will commence its six-month long season Friday, Oct. 16 at 3 p.m. ET, holding a dual meet and a scrimmage inside the Lancaster Aquatic Center. The women’s team will host Vanderbilt, while the men’s team will compete in an intrasquad scrimmage.
The program will adopt a no spectator attendance plan for the season opener, and UK Athletics will continue to evaluate the plan as the season progresses. Fans are encouraged to follow along through online live scoring or on the Meet Mobile app. The meet will also be streamed on SEC Network+.
“Props to the all the folks in the department and in the league who have helped us get to a point where we can start the season,” said head coach Lars Jorgensen as he begins his eighth season at the helm of the program. “This group has worked hard all preseason and in practice in hopes that we’d be able to compete this season, so to finally see it happen is exciting for the student-athletes and the coaching staff. The men’s team is looking forward to competing against one another in a scrimmage and the women’s team is eager to meet a great program in the Commodores.”
Kentucky competed in its annual Blue-White intrasquad meet just two weeks ago, breaking eight meet records. It marked the first time in more than six months the program competed, after the 2020 Zone C Diving Championships, the 2020 NCAA Championships and the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials were all canceled or postponed because of the COVID-19 health threat.
In its last appearance, the program competed at the 2020 Southeastern Conference Championships in February, where the men’s and women’s teams broke 10 school records, collected 15 podium finishes and posted a pair of the highest conference-meet scores in program history.
Women’s Team Outlook
The women’s team is made up of 14 newcomers and 23 returners, for a roster total of 37, which features 31 swimmers and six divers.
The team graduated two of the program’s most decorated swimmers last season in Ali Galyer and Asia Seidt. The pair combined for 34 All-America honors and 24 SEC Championship medals. Despite losing Galyer and Seidt, the women’s team returns eight of its 10 swimmers invited to the 2020 NCAA Championships, meanwhile adding a pair of newcomers ranked in the nation’s top 100 – Megan Drumm, a freestylist from Maryland, and Anna Havens Rice, an all-purpose swimmer from South Carolina. In addition, Kyndal Knight will return for her junior season as the defending conference champion on the 3-meter springboard.
The group is coming off four of its best seasons in program history, recording three top-three finishes at the conference meet and three top-15 finishes at the national meet. Meanwhile, the team spent all of last season in the TYR/College Swimming and Diving Coaches of America Top 15.
Men’s Team Outlook
The men’s team is made up of nine newcomers and 16 returners, for a roster total of 25, which features 19 swimmers and six divers.
The Wildcats graduated all five of its swimmers invited to the 2020 NCAA Championships – Wyatt Amdor, Connor Blandford, Glen Brown, John Mitchell and Peter Wetzlar. Four of the five swimmers made up the best 400 freestyle relay team the program had ever produced, while they also collected the team’s first swimming podium finish at the league meet in more than seven years.
However, the group will return a host of steadfast scorers at the conference level, including Kyle Barker, Daniel Blake, Jakob Clark, John Michael Gordon, Chase Lane, Daniel Orcutt, Hank Siefert and Mason Wilby. Furthermore, Danny Zhang will return for his junior season as the defending conference champion on platform. Building on the success Lane and Zhang have crafted on the board, the men’s diving squad added a pair of notable newcomers in Sam Duncan and Rodrigo Romero.
Southeastern Conference Guidance
The league office approved a men’s and women’s swimming and diving season, so long as it begins no earlier than October 1 and concludes no later than January 25. Contests are limited to dual meets, unless alternative strategies are identified to limit the overall number of participants to ensure appropriate distancing, and there is no restriction on the number of meets a program can compete in.
The meets are limited to conference schools, with regionalized competition permitted upon the adherence of opponents to SEC Medical Guidance Task Force Requirements for COVID-19 Management.
The league office also announced in July that student-athletes in all sports who elect to not participate in intercollegiate athletics during the fall 2020 academic semester because of health and/or safety concerns related to COVID-19 will continue to have their scholarships honored by their university and will remain in good standing with their team.
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.
