UK swimming and diving kicked off its 2017-2018 season opener this Friday at the Lancaster Aquatic Center.

Hosting their own ‘Sun Shall Shine’ Intrasquad meet, the swimmers were divided into a blue or white team racing each other to officially break themselves into the new season.

The Blue-White meet gave the swimmers a chance to look at their initial season times as well as a glimpse into the road ahead.

Fifth-year head coach Lars Jorgensen put his swimmers into events for them to get familiar with racing, but most importantly, for competing against each other. By seeing performances from the first meet, Jorgensen can give his swimmers the adequate advice for improvement in future meets.

Some top finishers at the event:

Swimmer Isaac Jones (Blue) finished the Men’s 1000 Free with a time of 9:12.65.

Ali Galyer (White) finished first in the Women’s 200 Free with a time of 1.48.68 followed by Geena Freriks (Blue), former SEC Champion in the 200 freestyle, with a time of 1:50.43.

Josh Swart (White) finished the 100 Back with a time of 50.21.

Peter Wetzlar (Blue) finished the 50 Free with a time of 20.66.

Last season’s 2017 SEC Female Freshman of the Year and 2017 U.S. team qualifier Asia Seidt finished first with a 1.57.44 in the Women’s 200 Back.

As for diving victories, Courtney Clark (White) won on the 3-meter and Chase Lane (Blue) on the 1-meter.

Junior Josh Swart said, “I swam the 200 Medley Relay, 100 and 200 Backstroke and 100 Butterfly. We won the relay, I won both backstrokes and took fourth in the 100 Fly. I had some decent times, but white team won so that’s what matters.”

The women’s “Blue” team and the men’s “White” team were both victorious. The White team took the overall victory, 301-286.

Jorgensen tweeted after the event: “#SunShallShine Blue-White in the books! Fun way to start the season. Congrats to the White Team for the W. Good racing for both teams!”

Overall, the Kentucky swim and dive team had a great meet that set standards for the future. The swimmers debuted some of their best events and are preparing now for the championship and future dual meets later this season.

One could argue the Swimcats are now 1-0.