The intrasquad rivalry lived up to the hype on Friday, as the University of Kentucky swimming and diving program inaugurated its season at the annual Blue-White scrimmage inside Lancaster Aquatic Center. The blue squad led for majority of the meet, but the white team forced a lead after the final individual event that produced a 298-295 win.
“It was a great day of competition for the Wildcats,” said head coach Lars Jorgensen. “The white team prevailed 298 to 295 in a spirited and fun competition. It’s a good way to kick off the season and see where we are right now, and it was a lot of fun.
“We need to be a lot better against really good Indiana and Notre Dame teams in about 10 days. For October, it’s always fun just to compete and get started. We look forward to the rest of the semester.”
The Wildcats competed in 32 events on Friday, including four diving events. Remarkably, the program broke 12 meet records in the friendly contest – seven women’s records and five men’s records – including the women’s 50, 100 and 200 freestyle, men’s 50 freestyle, men’s and women’s 100 backstroke, men’s 200 breaststroke, men’s 100 butterfly, men’s and women’s 200 IM, women’s 200 medley relay and women’s 400 freestyle relay.
Freshmen set three of the 12 new meet records.
“I thought we had pretty good competition, and it was a good chance to see where we are at,” said head diving coach Ted Hautau. “We had some good scores for the team not getting to do optional dives, rather practicing required dives. I liked the competitiveness I saw, especially in Kyndal (Knight) and Emma (Dellmore). We’ve got a lot of work to do though, and we still have some basic technique work that we’ve got to do.
“In general, I like the attitude of the team. I love how hard they’re working … I love everybody’s attitude, and Coach David (Morton) has been a huge help. So, I like that and we’re just looking forward to putting some work in.”
Next on the Schedule
The men’s and women’s teams will host perennial-program Indiana and Notre Dame on Oct. 9 at 10 a.m., at the Lancaster Aquatic Center. Last season, the Wildcats opened its season on the road in Bloomington, Indiana, to compete in a quad meet featuring Indiana, Notre Dame and Missouri. Kentucky earned just one win in the meet – UK and Missouri did not compare scores – with the UK men defeating Notre Dame, 154.5-143.5. UK an
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– GO CATS –
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Cami Moore
