The UK’s women’s Swimming & Diving team officially opened its 2017-2018 season Tuesday afternoon against SEC opponent Vanderbilt at Lancaster Aquatic Center.

This was the first dual meet of the season for the women’s team after their annual ‘Sun Shall Shine’ Intrasquad meet last week. In light of October, the girls sported their pink caps at the meet to support Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Head coach Lars Jorgensen got a glimpse of the girls’ performances last week to get a good eye on how well they’d compete today.

Kentucky’s B 200m Medley Relay consisting of Asia Seidt, Madison Winstead, Kayla Churman and Meredith Whisenhunt took the first win of the meet by less than a second with a time of 1:42.94, followed by Kentucky’s A 200m Medley Relay with a time of 1:43.13.

Junior Geena Freriks had a big win in the 1000m freestyle (9:54.65) leading Ali Galyer and Kathryn Painter in a 1-2-3 sweep in the event.

Another 1-2-3 sweep for the SwimCats happened in the 100m breaststroke won by Morgan Belli followed by Winstead and Jackie Hill.

Sophomore Seidt was a double-winner sweeping her freestyle events: the 50m freestyle (23.12) and 200m freestyle (1:49.01). Junior Belli was also a double-winner sweeping her breaststroke events: the 100m breaststroke (1:04.02) and the 200m breaststroke (2:17.05).

Kentucky won every event at the meet other than the 100m butterfly and the 100m individual medley which were both victorious for Vanderbilt. Overall, the swimmers did very well at their first regular season meet and are now preparing for other meets to come.

Jorgensen said: “Team effort today! Lots of people contributing to the win.” He said there’s a lot of work to be done still to get where they need to be to perform at their highest level, but it was a solid start for the women’s swim and dive team today.

Kentucky took the overall victory, 187-72. The women’s team is now 1-0 going into the rest of the season.