Orange Team Prevails in Annual Intrasquad Meet

Friday, September 28

Knoxville, TN

3:30 PM

University of Tennessee

Orange & White Intrasquad Meet

KNOXVILLE, TN - 2018.09.28 - Orange and White Meet

Photo by: John Golliher/Tennessee Athletics

September 28, 2018 | Swimming & Diving

Photo Gallery

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The Orange Team prevailed over the White Team 314-276 in the annual Orange and White Intrasquad meet to open the swimming and diving season Friday at Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center.

The Orange Team won 18 of 32 events en route to ending the White Team's two-year winning streak. The Orange Team leads the combined men's and women's series 4-3.

Before the meet, team took a moment of silence to honor Jane Anthony Wobser, the first Lady Vol diving All-American (1984-87) who passed away after a long fight with cancer. Her husband, Jeff Wobser, is a former swimming All-American for the Vols.

The Orange Team suffered an early setback after disqualifying in the women's 200 medley relay to lead off the meet but climbed back into the meet at the midway point.

Beginning with Emily Sykes' victory in the 100 breaststroke, the Orange team won seven consecutive women's events. Sykes finished the streak with a win in the 200 breaststroke. Tess Cieplucha ended the run with her second win of the day in the 500 freestyle; she had previously won the 1,000 freestyle.

Six women won multiple individual events. In addition to Sykes and Cieplucha, two-event winners included: Erika Brown (200 free, 100 fly), Meghan Small (200 fly, 200 back), Stanzi Moseley (50 free, 100 free) and Rachel Rubadue (1-meter springboard; 3-meter springboard).

Senior and team captain Matthew Dunphy led the Orange team on the men's side, going 3-for-3 by winning the 100 breaststroke, 200 breaststroke and the 200 individual medley.

Taylor Abbott extended his unbeaten streak to three years at the Orange and White meet. After notching a win in the 1,000 freestyle, 200 butterfly and the 500 freestyle, Abbott now remains unbeaten in his last nine events in intrasquad meets. He won the same three events as a freshman and sophomore.

The duo of Eien McGee (100-yard butterfly) and Matthew Wade (3-meter diving) also took home wins for the orange team in their first appearances as Volunteers. 2018 CSCAA National Diver of the Year Zhipeng (Colin) Zeng finished in first place in the 1-meter dive, as the Orange team won both diving and relay events in the evening.

UP NEXT: Tennessee begins regular-season competition Oct. 25 with a home dual meet against Louisville at 2 p.m.

QUOTES
Dave Parrington, Diving Coach
(On meet format)
"We've been training pretty hard and it's early in the season, so we did some different stuff today. We did something things we haven't tried in practice. We tried out a new system of not announcing divers, so that threw a curve at them. ... It helped with the flow of the event, so we'll look to do that in the future."

(On freshman divers)
I was happy with Matt to pull out a win on 3-meter. Honestly, he dove a little better on 1-meter, but the 3-meter event was a little more inconsistent across the board. I was really happy with Colin throwing a front 4 1/2 on his final dive, but that opened the door for Matt, and he stepped right though. That was good to see him step up. Rachel Renner is still recovering from ankle surgery back in February, so we're building her up slowly. She wasn't able to do everything we would have preferred her to do, so we did kind of a modified list of dives, but what I saw was good."

Ashley Jahn, Women's Associate Head Coach
(On season opener)
"Our returners, they executed a lot of things better than they have in the past. For our freshmen, it was great to see them in competition wearing orange or white for the first time. They did a lot of things well. I think we're going to have a very good season."

(On women's team leadership)
"I think that's where it's fun to see this first competition of the season. We see the changes that a summer brings and being one year older. I think we've got great leadership on the time, and we're excited for our two captains, Maddy Banic and Rachel Rubadue. We can see their leadership already in addition to the supporting roles of the juniors and sophomores. It's a really good group."

Lance Asti, Men's Associate Head Coach
(On Taylor Abbott's three-win day)
"Nine for nine. That's a great stat. He's a real spark plug for our team whether it's for Orange and White or the dual meets. He's a guy who loves to compete.

(On Matthew Dunphy)
"He's a leader by example, but he's been a leader for us for many years. He has the title of captain now, but it's a continuation of what he's been doing for years. ... He looks to get better at everything he does. It doesn't matter if he's in the water, out on dry land, nutrition, sleep. That kid does everything he can to figure out how to improve."

ORANGE & WHITE MEET
Women's Winners
200 Medley Relay: Team White (off DQ)
1000 Free: Tess Cieplucha (W)
200 Free: Erika Brown (W)
100 Back: Sinclair Larson (W)
100 Breast: Emily Sykes (O)
200 Fly: Meghan Small (O)
50 Free: Stanzi Moseley (O)
3 Meter Diving: Rachel Rubadue (O)
100 Free: Stanzi Moseley (O)
200 Back: Meghan Small (O)
200 Breast: Emily Sykes (O)
500 Free: Tess Cieplucha (W)
100 Fly: Erika Brown (W)
1 Meter Diving: Rachel Rubadue (O)
200 IM: Alexis Yager (W)
400 Free Relay: Team White

Men's Winners
200 Medley Relay: Team Orange
1000 free: Taylor Abbott (W)
200 free: Josh Walsh (W)
100 back: Matthew Garcia (W)
100 breast: Matthew Dunphy (O)
200 fly: Taylor Abbott (W)
50 free: Gleb Ionichev (W)
1 meter diving: Zhipeng (Colin) Zeng (O)
100 free: Alec Connolly (O)
200 back: Nathan Murray (O)
200 breast: Matthew Dunphy (O)
500 free: Taylor Abbott (W)
100 fly: Eien McGee (O)
3 meter diving: Matthew Wade (O)
200 IM: Matthew Dunphy (O)
400 free relay: Team Orange