UK Swimming & Diving Dominates Cincinnati Bearcats on Senior Day

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Kentucky swimming and diving sent its seniors out in style on Saturday, securing a pair of decisive victories of the Cincinnati Bearcats on Senior Day. The women won by a 210-84 tally, while the men posted a 195-100 victory.

Prior to the meet, the Wildcats honored their four members of the senior class: Scott Crosthwaite, George Greenhalgh, Frida Jakobsson and Matt Roman, who served as the captains for the meet.
“All three of the guys won today; they were awesome,” commended head coach Lars Jorgensen. “George Greenhalgh won all of his races, Scotty won a race as well as Matt Roman. They all really contributed greatly today. Frida was really good as well. So I’m really pleased with them. It’s nice to send them off with a victory. Cincinnati raced really hard and they’re a really good up-and-coming team.”
The women’s team had the fastest swimmer in every event, while the men fell just short of accomplishing the feat with a second-place finish in just the 1000 free. Both teams conceded victories in the 400 IM and 200 free relay one the meet was clinched, with all swimmers competing in the final two events as exhibitions.
On the women’s side, in addition to having a victory in all non-exhibition races, the Wildcats swept six different events. The butterfly group posted sweeps in both the 100 and 200 fly, with wins by Haley McInerny and Ann Davies. McInerny led the 100 fly sweep in 56.76 seconds, followed by Bridgette Alexander in 58.35 and Kate Kelly in 58.43. In the 200 fly, Davies touched in at 2:07.52 and was closely followed by Kelly in 2:07.65 and Morgan Belli in 2:07.74.
The Wildcats had three sweeps in the freestyle races. In the 50 free, Geena Freriks swam a 23.96 to take the title, while McInerny clocked in at 24.39 seconds and Jakobsson touched in at 24.53 for third. The 200 free saw a tight finish between Kendal Casey and Danielle Galyer, with Casey taking the win in 1:51.63 while Galyer finished one-hundredth of a second behind her teammate and McInerny finished third in 1:52.72. In the 1000 free, Kelly Berger got her first win of the season in 10:13.56, followed by Meredith Whisenhunt in 10:16.94 and Olivia Treski in 10:25.84.
The final sweep for the women came on the 1-meter springboard, led by Rebecca Hamperian with a 298.20. Kailey Francetic placed second with a 275.48, while Courtney Clark finished third with 275.03 points. Hamperian also took the title on platform with a season-high score of 275.55, with Clark finishing runner-up with 236.18 points.
The Wildcats went 1-2 in an additional five races. Alexander took the title in the 100 back in 56.03 seconds with Kristen Keifer placing second in 57.20, and Keifer went on to win the 200 back in 2:03.98 with a second-place finish from Kayla Churman in 2:06.31. Freriks picked up another win in the 100 free, touching the wall in 51.74 seconds with Casey in second in 52.59, and the final individual event 1-2 punch came from Kendra Crew and Allyson Dupay in the 200 breast in 2:17.81 and 2:22.95, respectively. Crew also took top honors in the 100 breast, clocking in at 1:04.47.
Rounding out the victories for the women was a 4:59.79 in the 500 free by Galyer and a 1-2 finish in the opening 200 medley relay with the lineup of Galyer, Crew, Alexander and Freriks posting a 1:44.34 while Keifer, Davies, Kelly and Meghan Taylor finished second in 1:46.50.
Had the times from the exhibition swims of the 400 IM and 200 free relay counted, UK would have swept the 400 IM thanks to Kathryn Painter (4:24.94), Dupay (4:29.42) and Crew (4:29.48), while the 200 free relay of Galyer, Freriks, McInerny and Hart would have claimed top honors in 1:36.71.
The men’s side of the meet featured seven sweeps, including a complete sweep of the diving events. Seb Masterton led the way in both the 1-meter and platform dives, with a 50-point improvement to take the title on tower with 388.35 points and a 374.18 on the 1-meter springboard. Levi Lindsey finished runner-up in both with a 337.13 in the 1-meter and a 321.38 on the platform, while Noah Richter placed third in both events after a 303.83 on the springboard and a career-best 278.93 on tower.
Like the women, the men also swept the butterfly races. Roman paced the team in the 100 fly with a 50.34, followed by David Dingess in 50.57 seconds and Walker Thaning in 50.60 seconds. In the 200 fly, Isaac Jones posted the top time in 1:48.62, with Bowen Anderson placing second in 1:52.35 and Jacob Smith taking third in 1:52.78.
Kentucky also had sweeps in the 50 and 200 free as well as the 100 back. Cobe Garcia, after getting his first collegiate win yesterday at Ohio State, added another victory to his resume with a 20.43 in the 50 free. Sean Gunn finished runner-up in the event in 20.82 seconds, while Crosthwaite took third in 21.08 seconds. The 200 free was claimed by Gunn in 1:39.03, while Kyle Higgins took second in 1:40.62 and Crosthwaite was right behind in 1:40.81. Higgins and Crosthwaite also notched individual victories, with Higgins claiming a three-second margin of victory in the 500 fee in 4:31.85 while Crosthwaite clinched a victory in the 100 free, touching in at 46.16 seconds to win by a slim three-hundredths of a second.
The final sweep was led by Dingess in the 100 back, who finished in 50.25 seconds and was followed by Josh Swart in 50.37 seconds and JD Schurer in 52.14. Schurer would go on to post his first collegiate win in the 200 back, finishing just .12 seconds off his personal best in 1:50.61.
Greenhalgh notched his first wins of the season in the breaststroke races, recording an NCAA B cut of 55.37 in the 100 breast before winning the 200 breast in 2:02.54. The senior also swam the breaststroke leg of the winning 200 medley relay along with Walker Thaning, Higgins and Gunn, as the quartet won by more than two seconds and posted the first sub-1:30.00 time of the season in 1:29.75.
Had their exhibition swims counted, Jones’ time of 3:58.98 would have secured another victory for the Wildcats, while the senior-laden 200 free relay lineup of Roman, Gunn, Greenhalgh and Crosthwaite that finished in 1:22.97 would have also earned a win. The only event that did not feature a Wildcat posting the fastest time was the 1000 free, in which Jarod Kehl and Jamie Stevenson went 2-3 in 9:25.58 and 9:34.03, respectively.
by Chloe Smith