Kentucky swim and dive men’s team defeated Tennessee 173-127, marking its first win against the Vols in a dual meet in 71 years. However, the women’s team fell 200-99.
The meet started at noon with diving, where Kentucky sophomore Kristy Pfaff took first in the three-meter diving final with a score of 300.75, which ranks her 10th all-time for the Wildcats.
Avery Giese followed Pfaff with a score of 287.70, which gave the freshman a new personal record in the event. Giese also achieved a personal record in the one-meter diving final with a score of 293.33, which also put her in first for the event.
Swim events started promptly at 1 p.m., where the women’s 200-yard medley relay gave the No. 8 Tennessee women its first win of the afternoon, picking up where they left off against Kentucky at the end of November.
The men, however, flipped the script against No. 11 Tennessee with their first win coming from Levi Sandidge in the men’s 1,000-yard freestyle (free) with a time of 9:00.50. He sat for over 22 seconds waiting for his teammates Chris Nagy and Nick Caruso to finish their free.
The men continued to dominate in the following event, where Carson Hick won the men’s 200-yard free with a time of 1:37.03, where he overtook a Tennessee swimmer in the second half of his swim.
Hick continued to take the men’s 500-yard free and was a part of the men’s 400-yard free relay that capped the meet with Kentucky’s victory.
During Kentucky’s first official home meet of the season against West Virginia, the sophomore was only able to swim in the 1,650-yard free, where he placed second. With the team facing Tennessee, it gave Hick his first full official home meet.
“My West Virginia meet was kind of rough, and I got to switch events, so it was fun,” Hick said. “It was fun to swim a new event and be able to win for the team.”
Alongside Hicks, Jonathan Rom won two individual meets of his own in the 100-yard breaststroke (breast) and the 200-yard breast with times of 54.77 and 1:58.48 respectively.
Compared to Rom’s lack of wins during his previous meet with Tennessee, the junior made a statement at home by bringing in a collective 18 points during his four events.
“In the past week or two, when practice is done, [I’ve] been trying to make sure to do a couple starts, to think about my turns and also my underwaters,” Rom said.
The men also took the 50-yard free, the 200-yard individual medley, 200-yard backstroke and three-meter diving event, where Gavin Hang clutched a score of 334.05.
Putting up points alongside Pfaff and Giese for the women was Bridget Engel, who got eight points for the team during the meet with her second-place standings in the 200-yard medley relay, 100-yard breast and 200-yard breast.
Kentucky swim and dive will break for the remainder of the calendar year, the diving team will travel to Athens, Georgia for the Georgia Invite while the women’s team will head to Nashville, Tennessee for a dual meet. Both events will begin on Friday, Jan. 3.
