For the recap of the first session of this meet, click here.
When the dust settled in Lexington, Kentucky, after three sessions of racing, each of the programs involved had a win to take with them.
The University of Kentucky men earned their first SEC dual meet win since 2009 with a tight 198-188 win over LSU. Virginia Tech men bested Kentucky 209-180, and LSU by a margin of 237-149. On the women’s side, LSU swept, beating Kentucky 237.5-151.5 and topping to Virginia Tech 247-142. Virginia Tech beat Kentucky women 203.5-185.5.
Men’s Highlights:
The men’s meet was so competitive that despite the close scores, the host Wildcats only claimed a single individual event outright on the final day. That was in diving, where Seb Masterson beat a tough field on the rarely contested (in dual meet competition) platform event.
Instead they had a mix of wins against both LSU and Virginia Tech in key spots. Brandon Flynn finished ahead of all the LSU competitors in the 400 IM. Sean Gunn led a 1-2 sweep in the 200 free while George Greenhalgh got winning points over the Tigers in the 100 breaststroke.
Virginia Tech won the lion’s share of men’s races. Robert Owen won the 400 IM in dominant fashion. Norbert Szabo closed out a tight field to take the 100 fly.
Lucas Bureau used a blistering 3rd 50 to narrowly take the 200 freestyle. Brandon Fiala added two more event wins to go with his two wins the day before. This time it came in the 100 breaststroke and 200 IM.
Louisiana State had some good individual performances but lacked the depth to beat either of the two teams. Logan Rysemus led clean sweep of the 100 backstroke. He also swam the opening leg on LSU’s 400 Medley relay, which won to close out the meet.
Women’s Highlight
Louisiana State led both the teams in many events, with many winners from the first day repeating to secure the win.
Kara Kopsco was way ahead to win the 100 fly, swimmer under 54 seconds in a race where no one else went under 55. She added another victory in the 200 IM.
Megan Cox led from start to finish in the 200 freestyle. Leah Troskot led a 1-2-3 finish over both teams for the Tigers in the 50 freestyle.
Colleen O’Neil took a tough victory over Virginia Tech’s Weronika Paluszek in the 100 breaststroke, holding off the hard charging Hokie to win a slim victory.
Cassie Weil was more than fifty points ahead of her next closest competitor in the platform diving event. The Tigers also won all three relays on the second day.
Virginia Tech didn’t get any overall wins on the day, but got some standout performances on the day. Klaudia Nazebo fought Kopsco all the way in the 200 IM. Jessica Hespeler swam a similarly close race in the 200 freestyle.
The swimmer of the meet for the Wildcats was Danielle Galyer who won the 100 backstroke to go with her 200 victory from the day before.
Kentucky’s Kathryn Painter took charge in backstroke and never looked back to win the 400 IM.
Full results of both days of the tri meet.
