University of Tennessee Athletics
Relays Shine for Tennessee on Day One of NCAAs
March 15, 2012 | Women's Swimming & Diving
March 15, 2012
Results | Floyd Interview | SEC "FIVE QUESTIONS"
AUBURN, Ala. - The University of Tennessee Lady Vol relay teams were the highlight for the sixth-ranked squad on the opening day of the 2012 NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships, as both the 200y free relay and the 400y medley relay set UT records Thursday at the national meet held at the James E. Martin Aquatics Center.
With six events in the book, the Orange and White currently sit in ninth with a score of 73 points. Four Pac-12 schools rank atop the leaderboard, as Cal is in first (132), Stanford is second (118), Southern Cal ranks third (118) and Arizona is fourth (107).
"For the most part we are performing really well," Lady Vol head coach Matt Kredich said. "You have pretty slim margins of error here at NCAAs, so you are held to a high standard and if you mess up a little bit you pay for it."
The evening began with UT notching sixth in the 200y free relay, tying the school's best event finish at the national championships. The foursome of senior Jenny Connolly, juniors Kelsey Floyd and Caroline Simmons and sophomore Kate McNeilis combined for a readout of 1:28.55 to give the Big Orange its top placing since 1989.
Earlier in the day during morning prelims, the quartet broke the Tennessee record in the event after touching in at 1:28.37. The previous best time of 1:28.86 was set this year in Knoxville at the Southeastern Conference Championships.
UT's best finish came in the final event of day one, the 400y medley relay. Consisting of Connolly, freshman Molly Hannis, Floyd and sophomore Lindsay Gendron, the group claimed third after a Big Orange record time of 3:29.92.
The mark topped Tennessee's previous best clocking of 3:30.36, which came this season at the conference championships. The relay advanced to the championship finals after a prelim time of 3:31.24, as sophomore Lauren Solernou swam the lead leg.
After competing in the 200y FR, Simmons was the lone Lady Vol to participate in an individual swimming event after qualifying for the 50y free championship finals. The Stafford, Va., native's mark of 22.18 seconds was good for eighth to warrant first- team All-America status.
Her prelim clocking of 22.05 seconds in the "splash-and-dash" event ranks third on the UT performers list and is the ninth fastest in school history.
"We are right about where I expected us to be," Kredich noted. "Caroline Simmons getting into the top eight of the 50y free was a great swim. I won't say it was a surprise, but she did everything right and it was a phenomenal performance. "
In the diving wells Jodie McGroarty became the 11th Lady Vol diver under head coach Dave Parrington to earn All-America accolades, grabbing 13th on the 1-meter boards with a tally of 304.00. The redshirt junior advanced to the consolation finals after placing 11th in the prelims with a six-round score of 301.60.
"I'm very, very pleased with the way Jodie got up and competed today," Parrington said. "She got off to a little bit of a slow start in the competition but came on strong as the event went along. She made a run to get into the finals but made the consolation finals, which in her first NCAA Championships is extremely commendable and I'm very proud of her."
Redshirt sophomore Tori Lamp was also in action in the 1-meter competition, missing the consolation finals by less than three points to finish with an 18th-place score of 288.65. Her fourth dive proved to be the difference, tallying only 30 points, with four of her other five dives being good for 50 points or more.
"Tori was diving solidly and was right with the pack of girls who ended up making the finals," Parrington explained. "I was feeling pretty good about how she was diving, maybe could have been a little bit sharper, but she was doing what she needed to do."
"When you are diving just solidly, you can't afford to have a miss and have to keep that solid effort going. She made a valiant comeback on the last two dives, came up a little short, but I'm really proud of her performance on day one as well."
Gendron also competed in 500y free prelims on the opening day of the meet, finishing 31st after a readout of 4:44.11. The time was .06 seconds faster than her mark in the event a year ago, as she touched in at 4:44.17 in Austin, Texas.
"Tomorrow we have a lot of swims," Kredich said. "The things that we have done really well so far are habits we have created through training. Tomorrow is a huge day for us and based on what I saw today, I think we are going to do great."
Eight events are on tap tomorrow, beginning with the 200y medley relay and followed by the 400y IM, 100y fly, 200y free, 100y breast, 100y back, 800y free relay and 3-meter diving.
