Earlier this afternoon, the women of the University of Kentucky and Vanderbilt University women’s swimming met in Nashville, Tennessee for the two teams’ first SEC dual meet of 2015. The Kentucky Wildcats were victorious, posting an impressive 170 points against the Commodores and achieving 11 event wins along the way. Additionally, Kentucky picked up several 1-2 and 1-2-3 finishes over Vanderbilt and had three swimmers (Kendra Crew, Danielle Galyer, and Christina Bechtel) post two individual event wins each.
The evening began with the 200 Medley Relay. Kentucky’s A relay (Danielle Galyer, Kendra Crew, Christina Bechtel, and Abby Myers) placed first in 1:44.03. Kentucky’s B relay raced to a second place finish (1:45.74), just .05 seconds ahead of Vanderbilt’s A relay. In the 1000 freestyle, Kelly Berger of Kentucky claimed a first place finish in 10:07.99 ahead of her teammate Aubrey Jones, who touched the wall in 10:15.50. Carrie Bencic of Vanderbilt was third in 10:25.53.
The Vanderbilt women picked up their first event win of the evening in the 200 freestyle. Summer Brown touched the wall in 1:51.10, finishing ahead of Kentucky’s Kristen Wilson (1:51.35) and Blair Kuethe (1:51.99). Next, Danielle Galyer followed up her first place finish on Kentucky’s A 200 Medley Relay with a win in the 100 backstroke. Her time of 56.18 was .1 seconds ahead of her teammate Bridgette Alexander, who took second in the event (56.28).
Kendra Crew claimed another event win for the Wildcats in the 100 Breaststroke. She finished in 1:04.45, just ahead of Kathryn Coughlin of Vanderbilt (1:04.55). Christina Bechtel of Kentucky won the 200 butterfly event by almost a second (1:58.32). Her Kentucky teammate, Abby Myers, placed second and also touched the wall under the 2 minute mark (1:59.20).
Vanderbilt came storming back into the competition in the 50 freestyle. Caroline Thomas and Brenda Cha tied for first place in the 50 freestyle (24.15), allowing them both to contribute 6.5 points to their team score. Alyssa Rufffing of Kentucky took third (24.19). Christina Bechtel then picked up her third win of the night in the 100 freestyle with a time of 52.06. Summer Brown of Vanderbilt, the winner of the 200 freestyle earlier in the meet, claimed second in 52.55.
Bridgette Alexander of Kentucky finished over three seconds ahead of the rest of the field in the 200 backstroke, touching the wall in 2:00.16. A pair of Vanderbilt swimmers, Chrissy Oberg and Hannah Martin, touched in 2:03.61 and 2:05.02, respectively. In the 200 breaststroke, Kendra Crew of Kentucky achieved her third win of the night with a time of 2:17.34, over four seconds ahead of the rest of the event’s field. Kara Lucenti of Vanderbilt was second in 2:21.95.
Kentucky’s Danielle Galyer picked up her third event win in the 500 freestyle. She was the only swimmer of the dual meet to break the 5 minute barrier, touching in a 4:57.18. Her teammate Kristen Wilson was second in 5:02.22. Abby Myers of Kentucky won the next event, the 100 butterfly, in 54.20. Vanderbilt swimmers Breanna Sapienza (55.66) and Kayla Moran (56.59) finished second and third, respectively.
Vanderbilt picked up another event win in 400 IM. Elly Faulkner’s time of 4:28.45 was the fastest of the afternoon, and Kentucky’s Frida Jakobsson claimed the next spot (4:29.09). Rachel Koch of Vanderbilt was third in 4:31.33. The final event of the session was the 400 freestyle relay. Kentucky’s A relay (Danielle Galyer, Abby Myers, Blair Kuethe, and Lindsay Schultz) raced to a first place finish in 3:28.95. Vanderbilt’s A relay of Summer Brown, Breanna Sapienza, Kayla Moran, and Hannah Martin touched in second place (3:30.94) to wrap up the meet.
Final Score:
University of Kentucky 170 – Vanderbilt University 92
The Kentucky women are now off to Blacksburg, Virginia to dual Virginia Tech tomorrow (1/10) at 11 am ET. Vanderbilt hosts yet another team at home tomorrow; the Arkansas will dual the Commodores tomorrow at 11 am CT. Additionally, Vanderbilt’s team will honor the senior class tomorrow, as this will be their last home meet of the 2014-2015 season.