Courtesy: Arkansas Athletics
Razorback swimming and diving showed up and showed off during the red vs. white meet this evening with rookie diver Josephine Matalone and veteran swimmers Anna Hopkin and Lexi Ljunggren setting the bar high for the season.
Matalone earned herself a 78.75 score in the 3 meter dive, more than proving herself ready to take on the upcoming season. Hopkin clinched first place for the 200 free and 200 fly adding on 18 points to the white team, and the extraordinary moments of the evening occurred when Ljunggren took first in the 1000 free and then a few events later won first in the 500 free.
Head coach Neil Harper is extremely proud of all the girl’s performances today and the resilience they have shown during this past week.
“The swimmers and divers have trained hard this week. They should be sore, and they should be tired,” Harper said. “but that way, it exposes some of the things we need to keep working on. When you are tired and you are frustrated, your bad habits start to come out and that helps us figure out a way to coach them and help them learn. We got a lot out of today.”
Harper hopes to use today’s meet to prepare them for not only the rest of the season but for when they host The University of Arkansas Little Rock on October 5th.
“In swimming, it’s one of those things where what the opposition does you can’t really control, all you can control is what you do in your lane,” Harper said, “…so our focus will be to look at some of the mistakes we made today, and really continue to improve, and work on some skills, so that we can make ourselves better.”
Harper hopes to continue the steady upward trajectory from the 2018 season into the 2019 season.