Missouri Swimming and Diving Sweeps NC State, Kentucky, Arkansas in Two-Day Quad Meet

haley-hynes-
Haley Hynes won the 100 back against NC State, Kentucky and Arkansas. Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

The No. 4/9 Missouri swimming and diving teams dispatched four nationally-ranked foes and went a perfect 5-0 at a two-day quad dual against No. 3/7 North Carolina State, No. 17/14 Kentucky and Arkansas Friday morning at the Lancaster Aquatic Center in Lexington, Ky.

Team Scores (Men)

  • Missouri 252.5, NC State 100.5
  • NC State 195, Kentucky 158
  • Missouri 257, Kentucky 96

Team Scores (Women)

  • Missouri 206.5, NC State 146.5
  • NC State 213, Kentucky 140
  • Missouri 240.5, Kentucky 112.5
  • NC State 261, Arkansas, 91
  • Missouri 285, Arkansas 68
  • Kentucky 254, Arkansas 99

FULL RESULTS

Missouri Swimming and Diving Press Release

After winning nine events on Thursday, Mizzou responded with 13 event wins Friday morning.

The Tigers swept Friday’s relays, with victories in the men’s and women’s 200 medley and 400 free relays. The men’s 400 free relay of sophomores Danny Kovac (Fort Collins, Colo.), Kyle Leach (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and Jack Dahlgren (Victoria, Minn.) and senior Giovanny Lima (Sao Paulo, Brazil) closed the meet with a 2:53.56, which lowered Mizzou’s own nation-leading time.

Kovac and senior Nick Alexander (St. Louis, Mo.) added individual event wins after each earned a victory on Thursday. Kovac claimed top honors in the 100 fly with a 47.12 to spearhead a top three Tiger sweep. Alexander took home his team-leading seventh win of the season after touching first in the 200 breast with a swim of 1:59.54.

Six other Tigers won events Friday morning. Hein and senior Haley Hynes (Lee’s Summit, Mo.) swept the 100 back with times of 47.80 and 53.07, respectively. Additionally, sophomore Molly Gowans (Victoria, British Columbia) and Lima were both victorious in the 200 free, as Gowns clocked a 1:47.61 and Lima went 1:35.53.

Also winners on Friday was junior Sarah Thompson (Collierville, Tenn.) in the 50 free (22.22), junior Carter Grimes (Las Vegas, Nev.) in the 400 IM (3:51.31) and sophomore Kayla Jones (St. Charles, Ill.) in the 200 breast (2:13.46).

Mizzou Head Coach Andrew Grevers:

“It was more of the same for the Tigers. They really got behind one another today. We’re starting to see them get higher in the water and reinforce better details, and the results speak for themselves. We’re really excited for the Mizzou Invite and I can’t wait to see what these Tigers do two weeks from now.”

NC State Press Release

With three team wins on the weekend between the women’s and men’s squads, head coach Braden Holloway eclipsed 100 career victories at NC State. Holloway has accumulated 101 head-to-head wins since taking charge of the programs at the start of the 2011-12 season.

The seventh-ranked Wolfpack women defeated the No. 14 Wildcats 213-140 and also picked up a 261-91 win over Arkansas. The Pack fell in its head-to-head matchup with No. 9 Missouri as the Tigers won 206.5-146.5.

Kate Moore led the way for the women as she took home titles in three individual events over the course of the two-day meet. Overall, NC State won six races, and 16 of the team’s performances were good for top-three finishes.

On the men’s side, the Wolfpack defeated 17th-ranked Kentucky by a 195-158 score. The Missouri men, who are ranked fourth in the nation, defeated NC State 252.5-100.5.

Freshman Ross Dant claimed a pair of wins for the Pack men, as 13 of the squad’s swims stood among the top three in their respective events.

FROM THE HEAD COACH:

“We had a pretty good weekend in Lexington,” said Holloway. “It was a great two-day meet with a bunch of teams that we usually don’t see a whole lot, which was a lot of fun. We didn’t really know what to expect besides our basic scouting report. Going into new competition always adds a twist to the meet. It changes things up, makes it a little more fun. Overall, I was really happy with our performances. We approved upon our first meet from two weeks ago. We definitely got better.

“We had new people step up with some of our team members being in Greensboro this weekend. It opened the door for some people to take control and take the lead in certain areas. We had a lot of new names step up to the plate this weekend, and I was happy with the energy and the focus of being involved in the meet.

“A couple of highlights. Obviously we had some great performances throughout the meet. Emma Muzzy, Kylee Alons, Kate Moore, Julia Poole – they played a pretty big role in our wins. Some of our freshman had some opportunities on the women’s side as well to kind of make their name known. One of the biggest weekend performances was by Sirena Rowe. I’m really happy about her two days and how much she helped us in the sprints and on the relays. Taylor Bennett also helped us with a great one-meter performance yesterday. On the men’s side, it was a great weekend by Noah Hensley, Hunter Tapp, Eric Knowles, Curtis Wiltsey, Ross Dant, to name a few. Kimani Gregory also got the look in the 100 breaststroke for the first time this year, and he made the most of it.

“Overall, we had some pretty good performances. Missouri got us on both sides, which is something we’ve got to learn from. At the same time, we got some good victories over well-coached teams with Arkansas and Kentucky. I’m happy with the weekend. It was a good trip, a fun trip. We still have to continue to learn from our events and where we can improve, whether it’s strategy or things we can take into consideration in daily training, but it was a good overall team performance.”

Moore rounded out a tremendous two days of individual performances with a pair of wins on Friday. She added to yesterday’s 500-yard freestyle gold with top finishes in the 1,000-yard freestyle and the 400-yard individual medley. The junior picked up the distance free win on the women’s side in 9:56.25 and went on to secure gold in the individual medley with a time of 4:16.32.

Emma Muzzy (4:18.04) also finished in the top three in the 400-yard individual medley, as did Eric Knowles (3:53.13), who took second on the men’s side.

The Pack continued its domination in the men’s distance free events as it posted the three fastest times in the 1,000-yard freestyle on Friday. Dant led the way with his second victory of the meet, touching the wall first in 9:02.03. His time ranks fourth in the nation this season.

Knowles (9:08.66) and Curtis Wiltsey (9:10.96) joined him on the podium. Wiltsey’s swim pushed him into the all-time top 10 list at NC State.

Kylee Alons, the NC State program record holder in the 100-yard butterfly, continued to find success in that event. She was the top finisher in 53.54 to add a sixth title for the Wolfpack women at the quad meet.

The women once again secured second-place finishes in both of the relays raced on Friday. Alons, Anna Shumate, Sirena Rowe and Vasiliki Baka went 1:38.85 in the 200-yard medley relay, and the 400-yard freestyle relay team of Alons, Rowe, Vasiliki Baka and Julia Poole finished in 3:20.00.

Noah Hensley posted another top-three finish, taking second place in the 100-yard backstroke (47.86). Alons was runner-up for the women with a time of 53.12 in that event.

Poole (1:49.00) and Hunter Tapp (1:38.13) both took third-place finishes in the 200-yard freestyle, and Rowe (22.55) impressed in her first 50-yard freestyle race of the season. Rafal Kusto also added a top-three result for the Pack men in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:00.07).

Kentucky Press Release

Sophomore Kyndal Knight led the No. 14 University of Kentucky women’s swimming and diving team to a win over Arkansas at the Lancaster Aquatic Center on Friday, sweeping her springboard events and remaining unbeaten on the 3-meter springboard this season.

Knight swept the 1- and 3-meter springboard events in the two-day quad meet, remaining unbeaten on the 3-meter board this season and carding seven of eight wins in all this season. On Friday, Knight topped the 3-meter field with a score of 325.75, beating second place by more than 30 points.

Sophomore Danny Zhang had his fair share of wins in the diving events this week, also collecting a pair of first place finishes in the 1- and 3-meter fields. Topping the 3-meter field on Thursday evening, he followed that up with a 1-meter win on Friday morning. His score of 316.80 on 1-meter was 17 points better than the second-place finisher.

Just like Knight and Zhang, senior Peter Wetzlar collected his second first-place finish of the meet Friday morning. Winning the 100-yard freestyle last night with the seventh-fastest time in the nation (43.83), the Zimbabwean topped the 50-yard freestyle field this morning with a time of 20.03. It marks his second-fastest time this season. His best mark of the year is 20.01, the 13th-fastest time in the nation.

Closing out the meet, the Kentucky men recorded the third-best time in the nation in the 400-yard freestyle relay with a time of 2:55.39. It was led off by Wetzlar (43.97), then senior John Mitchell (44.58), followed by senior Jason Head (43.90) and anchored by senior Glen Brown (42.94). The foursome finished in second place behind Missouri’s 2:53.56, the top time in the nation.

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