Lane, Zhang Sweep the Boards, Kentucky Loses to No. 14 Tennessee
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The RV University of Kentucky men’s swimming and diving team lost to No. 14 Tennessee in the season opener on Friday evening, 194.5-105.5, inside the Lancaster Aquatic Center. The Wildcats collected three huge triumphs in the meet, and junior Mason Wilby earned the team’s first 2021 NCAA Championships “B” standard of the season.
Daniel Orcutt ended the dual meet on a positive note, after collecting the team’s only swimming triumph this afternoon and doing so in the last individual event of the matchup. In the 200 IM, the senior earned a top time of 1:48.56, almost two seconds faster than second place and just more than three seconds off his personal best. Kyle Barker, a junior, rallied third place in the event, brining in last-minute points to the team score and touching the wall in 1:50.34.
Chase Lane and Danny Zhang had a remarkable night on the boards, earning a win apiece against a top diving program.
Lane, a senior from Tallahassee, Florida, collected the first win of the meet for Kentucky, doing so on the 1-meter springboard. He took first place on a 352.88 judgement, more than 10 points better than second place, teammate Zhang, who recorded a charted 337.28 points in the event.
Zhang earned a triumph of his own on the next discipline, collecting 395.63 points on the 3-meter springboard, an event he earned a silver medal in at the 2020 Southeastern Conference Championships with a 422.10 decision. Lane finished in third place on the 3-meter springboard against Tennessee, charting 357.53 points.
“I was really pleased with the guys today,” said head diving coach Ted Hautau. “I thought they settled down and focused on themselves and their dives. Tennessee is a great team with some international opponents that have a lot of great experience. Chase was calm, focused and consistent. Danny also did a great job. His leg gave out on the hurdle in his last dive on 3-meter, but he still managed to put together a great effort there in the end.
“I am pleased with Sam Duncan. He is just a freshman, but he is going to be phenomenal. It was the first meet of his college career, and he was pretty close in both events. All of the guys did a great job today, and I know they’re tired, but they worked hard and there were no excuses, they just did the job.”
Mason Wilby, a junior, did his job, too, this time on the swimming side of the pool. The Gainesville, Florida, native rallied a NCAA “B” cut time in the 200 butterfly, the team’s first of the season. In the race, he touched the wall in 1:45.98 to take second place, just two seconds off his career best. He also earned third place in the 200 backstroke, touching the wall in 1:48.50.
The pair of sprinters in Adam Rosipal and Jakob Clark had a notable day in the lanes. Rosipal, a junior transfer from Indianapolis, finished in third place in the 1,000 freestyle on a mark of 9:22.26. Clark, just a sophomore, earned second place in the event in 9:18.27, then rallied third place in the 500 freestyle in 4:32.03.
Hank Siefert, a senior from Xenia, Ohio, finished in second place in the 500 freestyle, touching the wall in 4:27.50. He also locked in third place in the 200 freestyle, earning a mark of 1:37.85.
The Kentucky swimming and diving program is on the road for the next meet, taking on invitational season at the Missouri Invite in Columbia, Missouri, Thursday, November 19 through Saturday, November 21.
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.
