UT Posts 10 Top-10 Program Times on Day One of Invite

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee swimming & diving combined to set 32 personal records and 10 times ranked inside the top 10 in the program record books, as the Vols and Lady Vols opened the first day of the Tennessee Invitational at Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center on Thursday.

Freshman Jordan Crooks threw down an impressive time of 19.39 in the 50 free to move into fourth in program history. The mark won the event for the Vols. Nolan Briggs (19.58) placed third, Scott Scanlon (19.60) finished fourth and Micah Chambers (19.74) was sixth in the A Final.

Sophomore Rafael Ponce de Leon Castilla won the 500 free with a time of 4:17.10, which ranked sixth in UT history. Joey Tepper checked in at fourth in the A Final with a personal-best mark of 4:21.17. Freshman Gus Rothrock rounded out the strong performances for the men, recording a time of 1:46.04 in the 200 IM to place sixth. The mark ranked eighth in the program record books.

"Really happy with the energy and the poise we raced with today," associate head coach Rich Murphy said. "The swims from Rafael and Jordan were very significant, both in the context of this meet but also even historically as those were top-10 times in our program. Just a really good eagerness across the board, and the majority of the races tonight we swam faster than we swam in the morning. I think that's a critical personality trait of a successful, championship-level team. We just want to keep pressing ahead tomorrow and do a really good job tonight taking care of ourselves, recovery, fueling, getting to bed early and then come out very competitive tomorrow morning."

On the women's side, freshmen Julia Mrozinski and Ellen Walshe improved their personal bests from earlier in the day with strong performances in the finals. Mrozinski posted a time of 4:38.82 in the 500 free to place second and move into third in the Lady Vol record books. Walshe's 1:54.77 mark in the 200 IM was second in the event and ranked third in UT history.

Also in the 200 IM, Alexis Yager took third with a time of 1:56.38 followed by Sara Stotler (1:57.27) in fifth. Stotler's mark ranked eighth in Lady Vol history. Rounding out the 500 free, Kristen Stege (4:40.62) finished fifth in the event, while Alyssa Breslin (4:42.91) placed seventh. Breslin's mark moved her into 10th in the record books.

In the 50 free, the Lady Vols finished third, fourth and fifth. Anna-Julia Kutsch threw down a time of 21.89, which ranked fifth in program history. Mona McSharry (22.25) and Jasmine Rumley (22.31) rounded out Tennessee's performers in the A Final.

"We had a lot of great performances across three different individual events today and two relays; really happy with how everybody performed across the board," associate head coach Ashley Jahn said. "Both relays with A cuts heading towards NCAAs and a lot of people under what the invited time was from last year at NCAAs. A lot of best times as I look at our time drop board. I'm just really happy with how everyone did: freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors."

In the relays, Tennessee's women recorded NCAA A Cut times in the 200 freestyle relay (1:28.19) and the 400 medley relay (3:28.91) and finished third in both events on the day. With a lineup of Josephine Fuller, McSharry, Walshe and Rumley, the Lady Vol's 400 medley relay mark ranked fifth in program history. Fuller posted a split of 52.57 in the 100 back, which ranked eighth in the UT record books. McSharry and Rumley were also members of the 200 free relay, being joined by Kutsch and Emma Carlton.

The UT men's 200 free relay of Crooks, Chambers, Briggs and Scanlon notched an NCAA B Cut time of 1:17.80 to finish second.

In diving, sophomore Bryden Hattie took first on the 3-meter with a score of 398.25. Earlier in the day, he posted a personal-best mark of 412.65 during prelims. Jacob Reason finished fourth with a personal-record score of 344.45.

On the women's side, senior Grace Cable took second on the 1-meter with a mark of 282.40. Emily Ann Wolfson (275.90) and Kara Holt (258.35) placed fifth and sixth, respectively.

"I'm proud of our three men each recording PRs on the 3-meter today," diving coach Dave Parrington said. "Bryden was a model of consistency all day long. He had some really great stuff. Dillon Richardson was sharp in the prelims. Jake, I was very proud of him today. He got his personal best in the final and got an NCAA Zone score. That has been nagging at him for the last few meets, and he finally got that off his back. I was really happy with that.

"On the women's side, we had some real highlights. The biggest highlight was Emily Ann getting her zone-qualifying score. Same thing as Jake, she had been knocking at the door and was frustrated a little bit but finally got that. I think now we will see her fly. Kara had a superb preliminary and a good final. Her score might not have been a PR, but her performance was the best I have seen from her 1-meter. Grace hit the board with her shoulder in the prelim and still made the final. That is a situation that can be really scary and can shake someone. She shook it off, showed incredible resiliency today and wasn't rattled by it in any shape or form. She came back and finished second. I was really proud of what I saw from her in that situation. It was a really strong day for us. We will take this and move on to tomorrow. It is a building situation for getting ready for SECs and NCAAs, so this was a good step."

Day two prelims will start at 10 a.m. with the 100 fly, 400 IM, 200 free, 100 breast and 100 back events. Diving will compete at 1 p.m. with the men on the 1-meter and women on the 3-meter. The swimming portion of the finals will begin at 6 p.m. with the 200 medley relay and 800 free relay being added to the evening rotation.

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University of Tennessee Athletics

Players Mentioned

Alyssa Breslin

Nolan Briggs

Grace Cable

Emma Carlton

Micah Chambers

Jordan Crooks

Josephine Fuller

Bryden Hattie

Kara Holt

Anna-Julia Kutsch

Mona McSharry

Julia Mrozinski

Rafael Ponce de Leon Castilla

Dillon Richardson

Gus Rothrock

Jasmine Rumley

Scott Scanlon

Kristen Stege

Sara Stotler

Joey Tepper

Ellen Walshe

Emily Ann Wolfson

Alexis Yager

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