Former University of Kentucky team captain and SEC Champion Geena Freriks is returning to Lexington: this time, as an assistant coach.
“We are incredibly excited to welcome back such an accomplished alumna of our program to join our coaching staff,” said head coach Lars Jorgensen. “Geena has proven herself as a leader in and out of the pool, and her experience will benefit our student-athletes in countless ways.”
Freriks is one of the best swimmers in program history. Three years after finishing her college career, she still holds five school records: 500 free (4:37.04), 1000 free (9:30.78), 1650 free (15:57.64), 400 free relay (48.16 split anchoring a 3:14.59), and 800 free relay (1:43.30 split anchoring a 6:56.23).
She also ranks 4th in school history in the 100 free (48.66) and 3rd in the 200 free (1:44.26), and holds long course meters program records in the 100 free, 200 free, 400 free, 800 free, and 1500 free.
In 2017, as a sophomore, she won the SEC title in the 200 free, making her the first Kentucky woman since 1995 to win that event. A year later, as a junior, she won the SEC title in the 500 free, becoming just the second Kentucky woman to ever win that race in the conference.
She qualified for the NCAA Championships in each of her four seasons at Kentucky and earned nine Honorable Mention All-America honors.
Freriks spent the last two seasons as a graduate assistant at Ball State University. There, she was part of back-to-back MAC Championship teams in 2021 and 2022. The Cardinals men and women combined to win 18 medals and break 21 school records at those two conference meets.
The Norwalk, Ohio native graduated from UK in 2020 with a degree in dietetics while minoring in business. Freriks was a four-time College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America Scholar All-America First Team selection and landed on the SEC Academic Honor Roll each of her four years in the blue and white. In 2022, she earned her master’s in sport administration from Ball State.
Freriks replaces Bridgette Alexander on the Wildcats staff. Alexander, another former Kentucky NCAA qualifier, served as an assistant for one season.
The Kentucky women’s program finished 2nd at the 2022 SEC Championship meet, a year after winning their first-ever SEC women’s team title in swimming & diving.
The men placed 8th out of 10 teams with 600 points, ahead of only LSU and South Carolina: both programs with new head coaches last season.
Alexander says that they are stepping away from coaching for the team being for personal and professional reasons. They are attending Physical Therapy school and is currently working as a patient experience coordinator at Athletico Physical Therapy, a national chain of Physical Therapy centers.
Great Hire for UK!!
seems like many past “champions” need to ask lars for a coaching job because they prioritized swim at UK rather than school
What a brutally-bad take lol.
the UK women had an average GPA of 3.7 … fact
Kentucky has had multiple women win scholar athlete awards in addition to their swimming prowess (Asia Seidt and Danielle Galyer for example).
Perhaps they should focus on trying to make the men better. I can’t imagine continuing to hire female alumni is helping the mens team, or have they just given up on them?
L + ratio
I tell the people what they need to hear not what they want to hear. It’s a fact that kentuckys men are bottom of the conference (LSU setting up to pass them, who knows what South Carolina will do) and clearly with the womens success the potential is there. Probably means the coaching staff is more focused on the women. Usually more of a mid major kind of issue, disappointing to see at this level.
Wouldn’t the same logic apply this way: “hiring female alumni sure is keeping the women’s team strong. Maybe they should keep doing that.”
In a time where mens teams get cut for less I’m just worried about the deterioration of mens swimming in the country.
She just came from working with a combined program, why the assumption that she can’t coach men?
Never assumed she couldn’t coach men. From swimming with a program where the mens team was basically exiled by the coaching staff I can say that having any women come back wouldn’t be helping the men. Not saying that’s happening but that’s not a drastic enough change if they want to turn the mens program around, but like I said maybe they don’t want to. I’m just here speculating, trying to understand decisions that are made.
There was no attempt to try to further the mens team with this with this hire. My issue with the recent pattern is they don’t even release these openings to the public. Lars just reaches out to an alumn that he knows will do everything he says without question.
Why would you assume that a female coach can’t help the men’s team? Would you say the same about a male assistant not being able to further the women’s team?
I always forget that there are still places in the world like Lexington, Kentucky, where they celebrate their transphobic team captain and where they still believe that women can’t coach men.