Kentucky Women’s Swim & Dive in First Place as Cats Wrap Day Two of OSU Invite

Propelled by four first-place finishes and two new school records, the No. 17 Kentucky women’s swimming and diving team took control of first place at the Ohio State Invitational on Saturday evening. The UK women have 477 points, and are trailed closely by No. 8 NC State (458.5), No. 25 Notre Dame (440) and No. 19 Ohio State (437).
The Wildcat men remain in fourth place at the end of day two with 279 points, behind No. 5 NC State (764), No. 14 Ohio State (520.5) and No. 17 Notre Dame (479.5).
“Overall it was a great day,” said head coach Lars Jorgensen. “It was great to see two more school records broken as Asia Seidt won the 100 back and Bailey Bonnett won the 100 breast, and there were some great performances on the men’s side as well. Isaac Jones placing third in the 200 free was definitely a highlight, and it was great to see Seb get the win on 3-meter. Really pleased with the performances today, but still one more big day left and we’ll need to finish strong.”
The women’s team used 15 A final appearances on Saturday to move into first place leading into the final day of competition.
Defending Southeastern Conference champion in the event, junior Geena Freriks brought home the first win of the night for the women’s team in the 200-yard freestyle. She dropped 1.07 seconds off her prelims time to win the event in 1:45.39. Two more Wildcats joined Freriks in the 200 free ‘A’ final, as Ali Galyer finished third in 1:46.32 and Meredith Whisenhunt was eighth in 1:49.64.
The Kentucky women continued to see success in the breaststroke events as freshman Bailey Bonnett set a new school record in the 100 breast, touching the wall in 59.60. Bonnett was one of four Kentucky swimmers in the A final of the event as sophomore Madison Winstead was second in 1:00.17, senior Morgan Belli was fifth in 1:01.01 and freshman Jaclyn Hill was eighth in 1:02.14.
Sophomore Asia Seidt lowered her own school record in the 100 backstroke, posting a time of 51.17, which was just .01 seconds shy of an NCAA automatic qualifying standard. Senior Bridgette Alexander finished fourth in the race in 52.93, and Galyer came in fifth with a time of 53.30.
“I’m pretty excited going into the last day of the meet,” said Seidt. “I wasn’t sure what to expect coming in, and seeing some pretty fast times at this point in the season is a good feeling. I’m pretty excited to see if I can go another best time tomorrow and hopefully go 1-2-3 in the 200 back with Ali and Bridgette.”
The women’s team capped off a successful night with a first-place finish in the 800 free relay as Galyer, Seidt, Bonnett and Freriks teamed up to take the win in 7:06.10.
On the men’s side, junior captain Seb Masterton was the only male to win an event on Saturday, turning in a score of 379.90 on the 3-meter springboard to seal the victory. Sophomore Kevin Frebel was the fourth-place finisher in the event with a finals score of 345.05.
Senior captain Isaac Jones had another stellar performance in the 200 free, finishing third overall with a lifetime best 1:35.50.
Sophomore Glen Brown finished fifth in the men’s 400 IM with a personal-best time of 3:50.31. The performance moved him into third place on UK’s all-time performers list. Fellow sophomore Wyatt Amdor made the A final of the 100 breast, finishing ninth with a time of 55.18.
The men’s team ended the evening on a positive note, finishing second overall in the 800 free relay as Brown, Jones, Jason Head and John Mitchell combined to go 6:28.14.
Kentucky will be back in action for the final day of the Ohio State Invitational on Sunday, with the preliminary session beginning at 10 a.m. and finals commencing at 4 p.m. The final day’s events will include the 200 back, 100 free, 200 breast, 200 fly, 1650 free, platform diving and the 400 free relay.
For the latest on the Kentucky swimming and diving program, follow @UKSwimDive on Twitter, on Facebook at Facebook.com/UKSwimDive, and on the web at UKathletics.com.
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For more information contact:
Karlie Kinneer