University of Tennessee Athletics
Lady Vol Swimming and Diving Rebounds at LSU
October 17, 2009 | Women's Swimming & Diving
Oct. 17, 2009
By Zach Stipe, Media Relations Graduate AssistantBATON ROUGE, La. - The Tennessee women's swimming and diving team rebounded from a season-opening loss at Louisville to capture a 170-130 dual-meet victory over Southeastern Conference rival LSU on Saturday behind a pair of pool-record relay performances at the Bengal Tiger Aquatic Club.
The team of sophomore Jenny Connolly, junior Morgan Farrell and seniors Jamie Saffer and Michele King opened the meet by winning the 200y medley relay in an NCAA `B' cut and pool-best time of 1:42.53.
Later, Connolly and King teamed with sophomore Cailin Perks and freshman Kelsey Floyd to cap the meet with a win and another pool record in the 400y free relay, clocking a `B' cut time of 3:23.46.
"We were much better today," Lady Vol head coach Matt Kredich said. "Saffer and King were great leaders and Jenny set a standard for our team in terms of intensity. This meet was more like our team, as we competed well and were aggressive. Those should be automatic, though, and not things we have to reach for. That's the way we practice and it has to be the way we compete. We have some really high goals for this year and we have a lot of work to do."
With the tone set from the first relay, Connolly, Saffer and King proceeded to dominate their individual events - each earning a pair of first-place finishes.
Connolly won the 100y back (54.48) by over a second and cruised to first in the 100y fly (55.16).
Saffer captured both breast events, taking the 100y breast in an NCAA `B' cut time of 1:02.58 and leading a 1-2-3 sweep in the 200y breast (2:17.11), as junior Martina Moravcikova was second (2:20.59) and freshman Breanna Folk (2:20.87) placed third.
King won both spring free events, blasting a time of 23.06 in the 50y free and earning a `B' cut in the 100y free (49.86).
Not to be out done by her teammates, junior Aleksa Akerfelds also won a pair of individual events.
The Bronxville, N.Y., native and freshman Brooke Watson placed 1-2 in the 1000y free, finishing in 10:19.66 and 10:23.55, respectively. Later Akerfelds (5:01.20) led another 1-2 result, this time teaming with sophomore Maddie Garrett (5:03.07) in the 500y free.
Leading the diving squad was sophomore Gabbi Trudeau and freshman Skye Sanders.
Trudeau placed second on the 1-meter (271.50) and third on the 3-meter (251.10), while Sanders was fourth on both the 1-meter (234.67) and the 3-meter (234.83).
"I'm pleased with how we did on the boards today," UT diving coach Dave Parrington said. "I thought Skye was solid all day and (junior) Jill Pierce continues to improve as she recovers from a shoulder injury. I was pleased with Gabbi's performance on the 1-meter, but she was too focused on the outcome instead of the process on the 1-meter and that resulted in a subpar finish."
Garrett placed second in the 200y fly (2:03.76), while junior Tricia Weaner snagged runner-up in the 200y back (1:59.80) and took third in the 100y back (56.13).
Folk and Floyd also scored runner-up finishes. Folk had a readout of 2:04.76 in the 200y IM.
Floyd earned a second-place finish in the 100y fly (55.70) and third-place results in the 200y free (1:52.01) and the 200y back (2:00.98).
LSU's Mary Beck won the 200y free (1:50.03) and the 200y IM (2:01.77). On the boards, Tigers' diver Rebecca St, Germain swept both the 1-meter (285.14) and 3-meter (298.13) competitions.
The Lady Vols return to action Friday, Oct. 30, when they open their home slate at the Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center for a dual meet with Kentucky.
