Kentucky swim and dive traveled to the Allan Jones Aquatic Center for competition in the three-day Tennessee Invitational, where the men’s team fell to No. 11 Tennessee 274-114 and No. 8 Virginia 226-159, and the women fell 304-84 and 282-105, respectively. 

Despite the overall loss faced by the Cats, the invitational gave opportunity for Kentucky to set new team records and notch a few individual wins under its belt against two top-programs. 

Day one of the Tennessee Invitational saw the Cat’s bring home one win, thanks to the talent of sophomore Carson Hick. 

Hick took first in the men’s 500-yard freestyle (free) with an NCAA B-Standard time of 4:15.45. The freestyle specialist was one of five Wildcats that posted NCAA B-Standard times on the opening day of the invitational.

Libby Grether and Sammie Hamilton posted times of 4:45.51 and 4:47.13 in the women’s 500-yard free respectively. Alongside Hick in the men’s 500-yard free, Levi Sandidge and Caue Gluck posted times of 4:18.80 and 4:18.99, respectively.

The Cats finished day one with the men trailing 98-29 to Tennessee and 76-49 to Virginia. As for the women, they were trailing Tennessee 105-23 and Virginia 87-37.

Similarly to day one, the second day of the invitational saw Sandidge secure the lone Kentucky win by earning an NCAA B-Standard time of 3:42.52 in the men’s 400-yard individual medley (IM). This time pushed Sandidge to go second in the Kentucky event top 10 list. 

Eight other Wildcats posted NCAA B-cuts during the second day of the invitational: Fernanda de Goeij, Lauren West, Bridget Engel, Adomas Gatulis, Hayden Penny, Devin Naoroz, Grace Frericks and Hick.

Alongside Hick’s impressive second B-cut, West’s accomplishment in the women’s 200-yard free with a time of 1:46.46 established her time as the ninth fastest in the program’s history.

The second day concluded with the men trailing Tennessee 192-66 and Virginia 156-100. The women were trailing Tennessee 212-47 and Virginia 192-63 at the end of day two.

History repeated itself on the third day of the invitational as well, with the lone Wildcat win coming from Hick. 

Hick took first in the men’s 1,650-yard free with a personal best time of 14:43.70. This was his third B-cut of the invitational and one that established him as the second fastest in the program’s history. 

Junior Jonathan Rom made a statement while in Tennessee, as he broke the school record in the 200-yard breaststroke with his B-cut time of 1:54.16. The previous record of 1:54.56 was set by Rom himself in the preliminaries.

Additional NCAA B-Standard times on the third day were set by Torie Buerger, Szymon Mieczkowski, Billie Sherratt, Ryan Merani, Gatulis, Frericks, Naoroz and Engel.

The Wildcats return to action after a bit of layoff, with their next meet being the Toyota U.S. Open on Wednesday, Dec. 4.