Press release courtesy of the University of Louisville.
The University of Louisville men’s and women’s swimming and diving team swept rival Kentucky on Senior Day Saturday evening in the Ralph Wright Natatorium. The men won 212.5-87.5 and the women prevailed 193-107.
“I’m really honored with the effort of the senior class put forth,” said Arthur Albiero, U of L head coach. “Their leadership has been has been the best that I can remember in my career and it shows in how they work together. Even when things got tough, they held it together and knew exactly what we had coming. I’m just really proud of all of them. This is a group of seniors that is probably the most decorated that we’ve ever had.”
The meet featured 1 NCAA A-cut, 1 2013 Invited cut and 10 NCAA B-cuts, The Cardinal men were led by multiple event winners Kameron Chastain, who swept both breaststroke events and was part of the 400-free relay and Joao De Lucca, who won the 100- and 200-free as well as the 400-free relay. Caryle Blondell (50-free, 200-medley relay), Evan Noble (200-medley relay, 100-back), and Pedro Coutinho (200-medley relay, 100-fly) also doubled up on wins. The women were led by Tanja Kylliainen’s wins in 200-fly, 200-IM and 200-back. Kelsi Worrell won the 100-fly, 50-free and 400-free relay and seniors Krissie Brandenburg and Breann McDowell each were part of the winning relays.
“On the men’s side, it’s a little bit different. We still have a lot of youth. People ask me if they know what this rivalry is about and I think they do now,” said Albiero. “And I think the way we performed left little to chance; that we are a team that deserves the ranking that we have right now. To be in the top ten and seventh in the latest poll is something that we earned.”
The Cardinal men have now won the last six consecutive with the women winning the last four against the Wildcats.
“We knew this was going to be a close meet,” said Albiero. “ When you look at the scores, it looks a little different than that, but I think the focus was on continuing the progression and racing in a championship mindset and continue to make adjustments.”
Here is a race-by-race wrap-up:
In the 200-medley relay, Krissie Brandenburg led off with a split of 26.11, Andrea Cottrell swam the breaststroke leg with a split of 23.73, Kelsi Worrell handled the fly leg in 23.73 and Breann McDowell anchored with a time of 22.73 to post the winning time of 1:41.00.
In the men’s 200-medley relay, Evan Noble (22.87), Kameron Chastain (24.30), Pedro Coutinho (21.54) with Caryle Blondell’s anchor of 19.63 combined for the winning time of 1:28.34 and an NCAA A-Cut.. The B-relay surged to the wall to take second when Aaron Greene (23.77), Thomas Dahlia (25.07), Mihael Vukic (21.72) and Trevor Carroll combined for a time of 1:30.68 just ahead of UK’s A-relay time of 1:30.88.
Abigail Houck took second in the 1000-free with a 10:04.60 behind UK’s Kelly Berger’s winning time of 9:58.23.
U of L’s Bryan Draganosky posted a 9:18.63 for the win in the men’s 1000. UK’s Brandon Flynn was second in 9:21.36 with U of L freshman Jake Schultz touching third in 9:28.71 in the meet’s longest race.
UK’s Greg Ferrucci (353.85), John Fox (313.87) and Zack Peterson (298.35) made it a sweep in the 1-meter. For the women, the Wildcats took the top two spots led by Christa Cabot’s 304.95, and Lindsay Keahey’s 255.75. Andrea Acquista was third for the Cardinals, with a score of 249.35 and Emily Stalmack scored fourth place points with a 243.15.
In the women’s 200-free, Kristen Wilson of UK was first 15042 with Andrea Kneppers touching second in 1:50.61 and Breann McDowell touching fourth.
Joao De Lucca posted an NCAA B-cut time with the winning time of 1:36.05 in the 200-free, with Cardinal freshman Matthias Lindenbauer touching second 1:39.88
It was a 1-2-3 sweep of the 100-back, led by Mackenzie Buss’s 55.95, followed by Krissie Brandenburg’s 56.01 and Cardinal Erica Belcher saving third in 56.26.
In the men’s 100-back, U of L’s Evan Noble went under 50-seconds with a 49.15 for the win. Josh Quallen touched in 50.01 from way out in lane 8 and fellow Cardinal Aaron Greene made it a sweep with a third place time of 50.21.
In the women’s 100-breaststroke, Andrea Cottrell posted an NCAA B-cut time of 1:02.46 in the win. UK’s Sam Shaheen is second in 1:05.14 and Gisselle Kohoyda was fourth for the Cards in 1:05.41 in a wild rush to the wall.
In the men’s 100-breast, Kameron Chastain cruised to a win in 54.60, almost two seconds ahead of the rest of the field in an NCAA B-cut time. Cardinal Brennen Berger was second in 56.24 and Thomas Dahlia was third in 56.61.
Tanja Kylliainen won the 200-fly with a time of 1.56.95, the only competitor under two minutes. Her time was faster than last year’s NCAA invited time. Cardinal Devon Bibault was fourth in 2:03.29.
In the 200-fly, senior Juan Lopez took top honors 149.74, Nolan Tesone was second in 1:50.80 Joe Brown earned fourth place points with a time of 1:51.88.
In the 50 free, Kelsi Worrell won with a time of 2291, Rachael Lewis was second in 2398 and Mary Mittel was fourth in 24.07.
In the men’s 50-free, Caryle Blondell went 20.06 for the win with UK’s Bruck in hot pursuit with a 20.11 and Delcucca was third in 20.27.
In the women’s 100-free, U of L’s Breann McDowell touched in 51.31 for the win just ahead of teammate Andrea Kneppers’ 51.94.
Joao De Lucca posted a 44.14, an NCAA B-cut time, for the win in the 100-freestyle. Caryle Blondell was right behind him, touching second in 44.88 and Lemar Linton scored fourth place points with a 46.18.
Cardinal Tanja Kylliainen won the 200-back, posting a 2:00.07, just out-touching teammate Erica Belcher’s 2:00.50 who beat UK’s Danielle Galyer’s 2:00.92 for third place.
Aaron Greene was first in the 200-back with a 1:47.44, Nolan Tesone was second in 1:47.65 and Juan Lopez was third in 1:48.91 for the sweep.
In the women’s 3-meter diving, UK took the top two spots, led by Christa Cabot’s 324.98 and Lindsay Keahy’s 293.40. Alessandra Murphy of Louisville jumped in for third with a 289.20.
Andrea Cottrell took the 200-breast with a 2:18.11 just out-touching Gisselle Kohoyda’s 2:18.56 for the top two spots for Louisville.
Kameron Chastain made it a breaststroke sweep with his second win of the day and a 2:01.31. Brennen Berger was second in 2:02.37 and Addison Bray was fourth in 2:03.00.
In the 500-free, Abigail Houck was first in 4:50.28, with Carly Munchel touching fourth in 5:01.19 for the Cards.
“I think overall it was nice to see a number of people step up. I would definitely say Abbie Houck in that 500-free, that was a great rebound swim for her after having a little bit of a sub-par 1000. As a freshman, in this environment, I was very pleased with that,” said Albiero.
In the men’s 500, UK’s early leader, Ross Bundschuh, was run down by Cardinal freshman Jake Schultz in the final 100 yards who posted a winning time of 4:31.91. Cardinal Bryan Draganosky also outkicked the Wildcats for second in 4:32.16. Bundschuh touched in 4:32.26 for third.
Cardinal Kelsi Worrell led wire to wire for the win in the 100-fly with a B-cut time of 53.14 with teammate Devon Bibault going 56.23 for third. Pedro Coutinho won the men’s event with a 48.76.
In the men’s 3-meter diving, John Fox and Zack Peterson took the top two slots for Kentucky, with Cardinal Sean Piner finishing third with 315.45.
Tanja Kylliainen left the field in her wake with an NCAA B-cut time of 2:00.35 for first in the 200-IM. Erica Belcher was second in 2:04.88.
Nolan Tesone won the 200-IM with a time of 1:49.67. Evan Noble was second for the Cardinals in 1:51.71 and Josh Quallen made it a sweep with a third place time of 1:52.12.
In the 400-freestyle relay, Kelsi Worrell led off with a 50.10, Krissie Brandenburg was second with a 51.69, Andrea Kneppers was next in the water with a 51.59 and an anchor of 50.61 by Breann McDowell for a 3:23.99 and the win.
In the men’s 400-freestyle relay, Lemar Linton led off with a 45.98, with Caryle Blondell next in the water with a 42.77 Joao De Lucca turning in a 43.45 ahead of anchor Brooks Wilmoth’s 45.97 for the winning time of 2:58.17 which was a pool record. The B-relay team of Mihael Vukic, Matthias Lindenbauer, Thomas Dahlia and Rudy Edelen combined for a second place finish of 3:02.05.
“I think the emotion of today, the guys did a great job of managing. Our schedule is tough. We had Notre Dame, a good rivalry meet on Friday night, and then to come back the next day to go back-to-back, there is an emotional component,” said Albiero. “They did a great job of managing that. Across the board I really think we swam better today.”