BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The eighth-ranked Lady Vol swimming team continued its success at the Hoosierland Open Invitational today by qualifying swimmers for the championship finals in each event and taking top-three placements in both relays.
“As a team, we were really tough tonight,” Lady Vol Head Swimming Coach Matt Kredich said. “We had some rough swims this morning, but had a lot of people come back and swim a lot faster tonight.”
The first event of the day was the 400y IM. Freshman Aleksa Akerfelds led the Lady Vols with a third-place 4:24.57 in the prelims and a fifth-place 4:24.05 in the finals. Junior Carly Mathes was seventh in the prelims (4:26.38), but did not compete in the finals. Sophomore Bryttany Curran improved upon her 4:29.35 in the prelims with a 4:27.70 in the finals for 11th.
The 100y fly saw senior Christine Magnuson take third in the prelims and runner-up honors in the championship finals in 53.94. Sophomore Jamie Saffer was 13th in both sessions, but registered a career-best 55.91 in the finals. Also swimming in the evening session was junior Betsy Lange (57.12) and freshman Tricia Weaner (57.40). The placed 15th and 16th, respectively.
In the 200y freestyle, Mathes and Magnuson represented Tennessee in the championship finals. Mathes registered a season-best and NCAA provisional cut by placing fifth in 1:48.38. Magnuson earned an NCAA provisional cut with a 1:50.02 time in the prelims and was seventh in the finals in 1:50.48. Junior Brittany Nauta competed in the “B” finals and was 11th with a season-best 1:51.58. Junior Ashley Quinn set a new personal best in the prelims after touching the wall in 1:57.75.
Saffer was the top performer in both sessions of the 100y breast. She swam a career-best 1:03.02 to place first in the prelims before shaving nearly half a second off that time in the finals. Her NCAA “B” time of 1:02.57 in the finals ranks her fourth among all Lady Vols in the event. Also with a new personal best was freshman Martina Moravcikova who was runner-up to Saffer with an NCAA provisional time of 1:03.30. She is now the 10th-top performer in school history. Representing Tennessee in the consolation finals of the 100y breast was sophomore Alex Barsanti (1:04.70) and junior Sarah McCall (1:06.12). Barsanti placed 11th, while McCall was 13th.
Two freshmen, Weaner and Morgan Farrell, were the top scorers in the 100y back. Weaner was fifth (56.35), while Farrell touched the wall third in the consolation finals (11th overall) in 57.86. Juniors Maria Jugan and Lange both had career bests in the prelims with times of 1:00.34 and 1:02.94, respectively.
Tennessee continued to be successful in the relays as UT foursomes picked up third and seventh in the 200y medley, and second and seventh in the 800y free relays. Weaner, Saffer, Magnuson and Mathes touched the wall third in 1:42.59 in the 200y medley relay. UT’s top team in the 800y free (Magnuson, Nauta, Weaner and Mathes), took the runner-up spot with an NCAA provisional time of 7:20.47. It is the ninth-fastest time in school history.
The final day of competition will begin tomorrow at 9 a.m. Live results from the Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatics Center in Bloomington, Ind., can be found on www.utladyvols.com.
