Kentucky’s men’s and women’s swim and dive teams traveled to Bloomington, Indiana, on Wednesday and were defeated by the Hoosiers in the first dual meet of the season.
The final tally on the men’s side was 232-66 while the women’s team fell 218-82.
Held in the Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center, the diving portion of the meet took place throughout the morning and was followed by a long swimming course in the afternoon.
Caroline Benda and Ryan Merani were the two top scorers for the Wildcats, gathering 13 points toward their team’s scores.
Benda stayed on top following her success in the previous meet, taking the 800-meter freestyle at 8:56:83. On the other side, Merani took his win in the 200-meter butterfly stroke at 2:01.42.
Within the 800-meter freestyle, two Cats made it on the podium when freshman Madi McGlothen followed Benda’s time with a 9:00.91, securing second place for Kentucky.
UK had some other successful individual times, placing two more swimmers in the top three when Bridget Engel (1:12.37) and Denise Phelan (1:13.24) took second and third place in the women’s 100-meter breaststroke.
In the 200-meter breaststroke, the pair once again took second and third place with Engel clocking a 2:37.57 and Phelan at 2:39.94.
Both the men’s and women’s sides saw success in the 200-meter individual medley with freshman Marie Bell taking second with a time of 2:20.30 and Anna Haens Rice (2:22.40) taking third. On the men’s side, Merani (2:06.76) and Max Berg (2:07.25) took second and third as well.
Sam Duncan posted NCAA zone standard scores on the board, recording a 1-meter total of 322.58 and hitting a 3-meter mark of 389.93. Claire McDaniels found success on the women’s side, turning in a new zone standard total on the 1-meter springboard with a score of 274.88.
The Wildcats will have their first home meet of the year inside Lancaster Aquatic Center on Friday, Oct. 13th, with the women taking on Eastern Michigan while the men will compete in an intrasquad scrimmage.
