The No. 22 University of Arkansas swimming and diving team (9-1, 3-1) swept Kansas and Vanderbilt at the Arkansas Natatorium during Saturday’s meet, which also served as Senior Day. Arkansas defeated Kansas 207-91 and Arkansas defeated Vanderbilt 203-83, with Razorbacks winning 14 of 16 events.
“We just tried to stay focused on what we were doing and really prepare for championships,” head coach Sean Schimmel said. “I’m certainly really proud of the team as a whole and the dual meet season as a whole in terms of how they stepped up each and every time and had some great performances all the way through the fall.”
Sophomore Hannah Bortnick (Mission Hill, Kan.) led the Razorback divers on a sweep of the three-meter springboards with an NCAA zone-qualifying score of 280.65. Senior Kesha Naylor (Saskatchewan, Canada) came in second with a score of 279.60, followed by sophomore Shelby Bartlett (Noblesville, Ind.) in third and junior Meghan Clark (Frisco, Texas) with the fourth-highest score.
Naylor won the one-meter diving event with an NCAA zone-qualifying score of 275.48 to round out diving for the Razorbacks.
The Arkansas ‘A’ team of sophomore Anna Mayfield (San Antonio, Texas), junior Nikki Daniels (Wichita, Kan.), junior Susanna White (Forest, Va.) and sophomore Nina Drolc (Velenje, Solvenia) won the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:42.20 to open the swimming portion of the meet.
Arkansas’ distance swimmers had a successful meet, beginning with Lauren Jordan’s win in the 1,000 freestyle. The junior from Carmel, Ind. finished with a time of 10:08.12, followed by sophomore Rachel Stoehr (Lake Forest, Ill.) in second in 10:24.46.
The Razorbacks swept the 500 freestyle, led by Mayfield in 4:52.86. Senior Nicole Menzel (Hilton Head, S.C.) touched the wall second with a time of 4:57.05, followed by Stoehr in third with a finish of 5:03.27.
Mayfield picked up her second individual event win in the 100 backstroke with a time of 55.12. Menzel also won two individual events in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:51.21 and in the 200 butterfly with a time of 2:05.74.
White contributed two event wins to the Razorbacks with a time of 23.06 in the 50 freestyle and an NCAA ‘B’ cut time of 2:01.28 in the 200 individual medley.
The remaining individual event wins came from Daniels in the 100 breaststroke with an NCAA ‘B’ time cut of 1:01.96, from Drolc in the 100 freestyle in 51.15 and from junior Julia Banach (Eilat, Isreal) in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:20.47.
Arkansas ended the meet with a win in the 200 freestyle relay. The Arkansas ‘A’ team of Drolc, sophomore Maddie Monroe (Godfrey, Ill.), senior Shelby Cox (Little Rock, Ark.) and White finished the race in 1:34.50.
On Feb. 8-9, select Razorback swimmers will represent Arkansas at the Virginia Tech Invitational in Blacksburg, Va.
