#19 Arkansas Cruises Past Utah

Arkansas

Arkansas seniors Yi-Ting Siow and Leah Pierce each won two events in their final home meet to lead the Razorback swimming and diving team over Utah on Saturday at Arkansas Natatorium.
 
Arkansas honored Siow and Pierce along with fellow senior Lynette Ng and juniors Megan Haskins and Kristen Keith in a ceremony before the meet.
 
Thirteen event wins carried the Hogs to a 195-100 victory over the Utes, giving Arkansas (6-2, 2-1 Southeastern Conference) a commanding victory in its final home meet of the season.
 
“I was very pleased with today’s performances,” Arkansas swimming coach Jeff Poppell said. “It has been rough around here the last few days with the winter storm and we have had to battle some adversity going into this competition. We weren’t even sure if we were going to be able to get the meet off. The girls did a fantastic job competing today and racing. I couldn’t be any more pleased with that.
 
“Today was probably one of our best team performances of the year, top to bottom. Improving the little things was one of the things we wanted to do going into this meet and we felt like we did a fantastic job of that. The strength of the performances today will give the girls a lot of confidence and motivation going into the SEC Championships, which is what we wanted.”
 
Siow took first place in the 200-yard freestyle, touching in at 1 minute, 51.37 seconds and the 100y butterfly with a time of 55.76, while Pierce won the 100y breaststroke event in 1:04.88 and earned her second victory of the day in the 200y breaststroke with a time of 2:18.07.
 
Haskins won the 50y freestyle, turning in a time of 23.71, the third-fastest time on the team this season.
 
Freshmen Haley Smith and Dannican Brennan added wins for the Razorbacks in the 100y and 200y backstroke, respectively. Smith touched in at 57.71 to earn her third victory of the season while Brennan turned in a time of 2:03.63.
 
Sophomore Jillienne Schilling took first in the 1,000y freestyle with a time of 10:14.43. Newcomer Sigrun Sverrisdottir gave Arkansas a sweep of the distance events, turning in the best time in the 500y freestyle at 5:02.72.
 
Junior Jamie Marks turned in the top time in the 200y butterfly at 2:03.59.
 
In diving, sophomore Liana Bugslag won the one-meter with a personal-best score of 287.18 while fellow sophomore Alex Roman took the three-meter event with a score of 324.53. That mark sets a new career high for Roman by almost 30 points.
 
“As poorly as the girls dove in our last dual meet against Missouri, today was the complete opposite,” Arkansas diving coach Dale Schutlz said. “Their performance on the three-meter boards was the best performance from two divers in my entire coaching career. We have been training very hard in trying to overcome our inconsistencies and that hard work seems to be finally paying off.” 
 
The Razorback relay team of Ng, Pierce, Katie Whitbeck and Courtney Hubbard kicked off the meet with a win in the 400y medley relay at 3:48.29.
 
Arkansas returns to action Feb. 17-20 when they travel to Athens, Ga., for the SEC Swimming and Diving Championships, hosted by the University of Georgia.

Utah

Utah women’s swimming and diving team fall to No. 19 Arkansas, 195 – 100. The Utes current dual meet record is now 7-4.

“Our women were very resilient,” said Utah Head Coach Greg Winslow. “For them to come and compete after two back-to-back meets last week is hard. I am proud of how they were able to swim today.”

Junior Natalie Edge (South Jordan, Utah) recorded a first-place time in the 100 free at 51.37 and took a third-place position in the 50 free with a time of 23.91, respectively. Edge also helped the Utes finish first in the 200 free relay where they beat the Razorbacks with a time of 1:35.94.

The 200 relay team also included sophomore Hannah Caron (Raleigh, N.C.), junior Kristina Evans (Salt Lake City, Utah) and as the anchor, senior Annie VanLeeuwen.

Junior Maiya Otuska (Littleton, Colo.) competed well against the Razorbacks, placing first in the 400 IM with a time of 4:28.74 and second-place positions in the 100 and 200 breast with times of 1:05.74 and 2:18.74, respectively.

The Utah women were able to sweep Arkansas in the 400 IM with freshman Kayla Buck (Folsom, Calif.) finishing second at 4:43.81 and junior Jana Willsey (Clearwater, Fla.) taking third at 4:56.50.

Off of the platforms, junior Kwan “Queenie” Ling Yu (Yuen Long, Hong Kong) was able to finish second in the 1-meter dive with a score of 283.43, only 3.75 points behind Arkansas’s Liana Bugslag. Yu also finished strong in the 3-meter dive, rounding out the top three with a score of 301.05.

Freshman Ellis Walters (Indianapolis, Ind.) recorded a score of 281.63 in the 3-meter dive, finishing third against the Razorbacks.

“We our going to continue to focus on what we are doing and prepare for conference,” said Winslow. “Emotionally, we are ready to face our rival and are excited, but we need to continue to learn from past mistakes to avoid repeating them Thursday.”

Next week, both the men and women with head south to face Mountain West Conference and in-state rivals, BYU, to close out their regular season. The meet is schedule to take place on Thursday and start at 6 p.m.