Tennessee Sweeps Auburn, Men Fall to Texas

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

The Tennessee women defeated Auburn and the men’s team split a double dual against the Tigers and the defending NCAA champion Texas on Friday at Allan Jones Aquatic Center.

The No. 24 ranked Tennessee women (4-1) were propelled by Erika Brown‘s second consecutive three-win performance this season. The Lady Vols won a season-high 13 of 16 events to defeat No. 17 ranked Auburn 197-103.

RESULTS

The 15th-ranked Tennessee men (4-2) came just short of sweeping the day behind senior team captain Matthew Dunphy‘s impressive performance. Going into the final competition of the afternoon the Vols were one event win away from knocking off Texas, the defending National Champions, but the Longhorns clinched the 200-freestyle relay to end the day. Overall, the Tennessee men won seven of 17 events to defeat Auburn 233-66 and drop to fifth-ranked Texas 156.5-143.5.

The junior duo of Brown and Meghan Small carried the fight in the women’s competition, as Brown had wins in three events and Small registered two. Small notched victories in the 100 backstroke (53.14) and the 200 breaststroke (2:14.49), while Brown tallied wins in the 200 butterfly (1:57.93), the 50 freestyle (48.42) and the 100 butterfly (52.54). Sophomore Amanda Nunan also swept the distance events with a pair of wins in the 1000-yard freestyle and the 500-yard freestyle.

Individual winners for the Tennessee women included: Nikol Popov in the 100 breaststroke (1:01.99), Madeline Banic in the 50 freestyle (22.56), Rachel Rubadue in the 1-meter (289.90) and Tess Cieplucha in the 400-individual medley.

Dunphy led the men’s team with wins in the 100 breaststroke (54.01) and the 200 breaststroke (1:57.93). Zhipeng (Colin) Zeng remained unbeaten after winning both the 1-meter (382.60) and the 3-meter (413.45).

Individual winners for the Vols were Josh Walsh in the 200 freestyle (1:36.79) and Kyle DeCoursey in the 50 freestyle.

The Tennessee diving team will hit the road to Austin for the Texas Diving Invitational, which runs from Nov. 14 to 16. After, both the swimming and diving teams will host the Tennessee Invitational in Knoxville at the Allan Jones Aquatic Center from Nov. 29 to Dec. 1.

QUOTES

Lance Asti, Associate Head Coach (Men)
“Looking at this meet and preparing, we knew Texas was going to be a really strong team. Auburn is in a rebuilding phase. The message was really clear coming off the bus against Purdue and Wisconsin. We pulled all the guys in and said, ‘We want to go toe-to-toe with these guys. I want to go eye-to-eye and not give them a single win just because of the name on their cap.’ Just because they’re defending champions doesn’t mean they’ve won any race. I wanted to know we would do everything we could to make sure Texas earned everything that they could. Our guys did that. They didn’t give anything just because a guy had Olympic Rings tattooed on his back. Our guys just stuck it to them any way they could. I’m thrilled with our guys’ performance. I’m overwhelmed at the way they came and competed against the defending national champions. Our guys didn’t back down from anything, at any moment. Most meets there are ebbs and flows and sometimes you have a big performance and sometimes you let your guard down. I felt like we were on the attack from the beginning to the very last relay.”

Ashley Jahn, Associate Head Coach (Women)
“The meet was great. This week being the third week that we’ve raced, the women had some really clear goals. Again, we got to see some people in new events, which was great. They made some really great changes from week one to last week at Purdue and today. It really has been an incredible progression of them seeing something they want to make a change to and then making that change. We had some real breakout swims today. Amanda Nunan was incredible. She’s been putting together good stuff in practice. Her racing the first two weeks wasn’t bad by any means but it wasn’t what we knew she was capable of. Today she just really attacked the front end of the races and that got her into a rhythm early. That was fantastic.”

Dave Parrington, Diving Coach
“Colin again did a really nice job. He was solid today. He did some really good dives, but he was a little under the weather, so we had him sleep in this morning. Maybe he had a little lethargy from that, but he competed really well in the competition when he needed to hit dives. He missed his last dive. He was feeing pretty tired, but he tried to go for it. Jordan Windle was a little off his game, but it’s hard to roll in here — they came in this morning and got up on the boards and competed. It’s tough there. We’ll see them next week at there place. Nice job by Rachel. She did some nice stuff today, hit some key dives on 1-meter. Honestly we like to win the events, but the highlight for me today was Keegan Richardson. He really took some major strides today. Last year he battled and battled but didn’t come close to zones. He finally got it in the last chance meet. Today he qualified on 1-meter for the first time, then turned around and did the same on 3-meter with career highs in both events.”

Tennessee vs. Auburn/Texas
Tennessee Winners
Women (13 of 16)
200 Medley Relay – Tennessee (1:38.72)
1000 Free – Amanda Nunan (9:44.19)
100 Back – Meghan Small (53.14)
100 Breast – Nikol Popov (1:01.99)
200 Fly – Erika Brown (1:57.93)
50 Free – Madeline Banic (22.56)
100 Free – Erika Brown (48.42)
200 Breast – Meghan Small (2:14.49)
500 Free – Amanda Nunan (4:49.47)
100 Fly – Erika Brown (52.54)
1-meter – Rachel Rubadue (289.90)
400 IM – Tess Cieplucha (4:13.31)
200 Free Relay – Tennessee (1:29.49)

Men (7 of 16 events)
200 Medley Relay – Tennessee (1:27.05)
200 Free – Josh Walsh (1:36.79)
100 Breast – Matthew Dunphy (54.01)
50 Free – Kyle DeCoursey (20.16)
1-meter – Zhipeng (Colin) Zeng (382.60)
200 Breast – Matthew Dunphy (1:57.93)
3-meter – Zhipeng (Colin) Zeng (413.45)

— The above press release was posted by Swimming World in conjunction with Tennessee. For press releases and advertising inquiries please contact Advertising@SwimmingWorld.com.

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