Tennessee Splits Florida Meet in Regular-Season Finale

Friday, January 26

Knoxville, TN

1:00 PM

University of Tennessee

Florida

Tennessee Splits Florida Meet in Regular-Season Finale

January 26, 2018 | Swimming & Diving

Final Results Photo Gallery

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee swimming and diving team concluded the regular season Friday with a split against Florida at Allan Jones Aquatic Center.

The Lady Vols (7-3) won 12 of 16 events en route to a 184-116 victory over No. 16 Florida.

In the men's meet, No. 12 Tennessee (6-2-1) won three events -- headlined by a diving sweep from Colin Zeng and Liam Stone -- in a 178-122 loss to No. 4 Florida.

Sophomores Erika Brown and Meghan Small led the way with another two-victory meet for Tennessee. Brown won the 200-yard freestyle (1:47.74) and sparked a 1-2-3 finish in the 100 butterfly (52.31). Small took first the 200 butterfly (1:59.44) and the 200 individual medley (1:59.94).

Junior Madeline Banic picked up her first victory in her second meet of the season. She led a 1-2-3 Tennessee finish in the 50 freestyle, which she won in 22.77.

Additional victories for the women included: Tjasa Pintar in the 100 breaststroke (1:02.30), Stanzi Moseley in the 100 freestyle (49.11), Micah Bohon in the 200 backstroke (1:56.19), Tess Cieplucha in the 200 breaststroke (2:13.98) and Rachel Rubadue on 3-meter springboard.

The divers led the way for the Vols in the men's meet. Zeng won the 1-meter springboard (397.88), followed by Stone. The two Vols reversed order on the 3-meter. Stone won on his own senior day with a score of 387.75, just 0.75 points ahead of Zeng. Will Hallam was third and Nick Rusek took fourth.

Tennessee swept both 200 medley relays to start the meet, and the Lady Vols also won the closing 400 freestyle relay.

SENIORS HONORED: Tennessee has nine seniors on the roster, six men and three women, who were honored prior to the meet. Senior men include: Ryan Coetzee, David Heron, Austin Hirstein, Sam McHugh, Peter John Stevens and Liam Stone. The three Lady Vol seniors include: Katie Armitage, Micah Bohon and Alex Cleveland.

QUOTES
Tennessee head coach Matt Kredich:
(On the women's meet)
"We didn't show any weakness. We were strong across all our events. We raced well. We had people rising to the occasion who haven't necessarily done so yet. We had people who struggled the last few weeks have outstanding swims. We've got some good momentum to carry into SECs."

(On the men's meet)
"One thing I saw from our men that was impressive was that we got behind in a few races, and there was a noticeable surge, especially in the second half of some 200s, that we haven't necessarily seen. Our competitiveness was uniformly very high. We competed well. We didn't have quite the presence I'd hoped we had in a couple of the really close races, but we certainly didn't give up. We actually gave ourselves a chance to win races that I think two or three meets ago that wouldn't have happened. Florida holds us to a high standards, and they were outstanding today."

Tennessee diving coach Dave Parrington:
"Liam getting a big win on 3-meter in a close contest. He did a good job on 1-meter as well. He was 80 or so points better than he did a week ago at Georgia, which was a big highlight. He was showing some really good signs and looking like himself. He's getting his takeoffs. His strength looks great. He's higher in the air. He's moving faster. All of a sudden, it's different than what he's been dealing with all year. Now he's adjusting the finishes, and we have a couple weeks to work on that before SECs. Colin was solid today. Another great highlight was Will Hallam going 370 on 3-meter. That was a big, big step.

"It was a good win by Rachel on 3-meter against a really good Florida diver. Rachel was second on 1-meter and Ana (Hernandez) stepped up after a disappointing 3-meter, jumping up to third. Keegan (Richardson) dove exhibition on platform and had a zone qualifying score. That was huge for him because he's been close two or three times. We had a lot of positives today. Emily (Pelletier) was back in competition. She and Sean (Meyers) are diving better."