Kansas vs. Arkansas
- Results
- Hosted by Arkansas (women only)
- Saturday, January 28th
- 25 yards
- Dual meet format
FINAL TEAM SCORES:
- Arkansas – 181.50
- Kansas – 106.50
With a well-balanced attack that included nine different athletes winning individual events, the Arkansas Razorbacks topped the visiting Kansas Jawhawks on Senior Day, 181.50-106.50. The win marked the 26th consecutive non-conference dual meet win for Arkansas. Chelsea Tatlow and Jessie Garrison were the only swimmers with two individual wins for the Razorbacks (though one of Garrison’s wins was exhibitioned), with Tatlow sweeping the backstrokes (55.66 and 2:01.27, respectively), and Garrison dominating the 200 fly (2:00.92) and 200 IM (2:03.62).
Kansas freshmen Jenny Nusbaum (200 free) and Carly Straight (100 free) each recorded a win for the Jayhawks.
Press Release – Arkansas
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Behind 12 first-place finishes, the Arkansas swimming and diving team defeated Kansas 181.50-106.50 on Saturday’s Senior Day at the Arkansas Natatorium.
The victory improved the Razorbacks’ record to 5-3 on the season and extended their streak over the Jayhawks (4-4) to nine consecutive meets, dating back to the 2007-08 season. With the win, Arkansas has also won 26 consecutive non-conference dual meets.
“I thought it was a great way to finish the season and get prepared for the SEC Championships,” head coach Neil Harper said. “We have been training hard for the entire month of January, preparing for SEC’s. The seniors did a great job of leading on such an emotional day. Having a really good crowd is always nice, especially in the middle of your race to help bring you home. I like where we are at. At the end of another hard week of training, I thought they performed well.”
Arkansas set nine season bests and six lifetime bests on the day. Three seniors broke season bests while two claimed lifetime bests.
Senior Mary-Margaret Soderberg swam to a first-place finish (2:16.34) in the 200 breaststroke, the fifth fastest time by an Arkansas swimmer in the event this season. She also swam to a third-place finish in the 200 freestyle (1:52.94).
Senior Sarah Easterling touched fourth in the 100 breaststroke in a season best time of 1:05.66. Junior Courtney Nall had a lifetime best in the 200 individual medley, with an exhibition time of 2:07.92. Senior Sam Nelson dove a 268.50 on the 3m springboard for a lifetime-best score.
Junior Nicole Gillis dominated on the boards once again. Notching two NCAA Zone scores on the 1m and 3m boards. Gillis also broke her lifetime best on the 3m with a score of 347.93, the second best score in school history. Molly Harvie recorded a zone score on the 1m for the third time this season with a second place finish and season best score of 280.88. For the first time this season, freshman Caroline Welch qualified for zones on the 3m with a lifetime best score of 287.70.
Freshman Ayumi Macias continued to own the 1000 freestyle. With a first-place finish in a time of 10:07.06, Macias now owns all five of the top times in the event by Razorbacks this season.
UP NEXT
Arkansas will take a break from competition before traveling to Knoxville, Tennessee, to participate in the SEC Swimming and Diving Championships on Feb. 14-18.
For more information on Arkansas Swimming and Diving, follow @RazorbackSD on Twitter.
Press Release – Kansas
Fayetteville, Ark. – After receiving praise from head coach Clark Campbell earlier in the week for their results in the classroom, Kansas swimming and diving’s freshmen earned further recognition for their work in the pool on Saturday in KU’s 181.5-106.5 loss to Arkansas.
“The freshmen are really embracing the challenge,” said Campbell. “It’s good to see when the young ones come in and they don’t have a lot of background in the college swimming scene. All they know is to get up there and do the best they can. They really are good role models for us all.”
Freshmen Jenny Nusbaum and Carly Straight accounted for two of KU’s three individual event wins. Nusbaum swam her second-fastest time (1:51.13) of the year in the 200-yard freestyle, an event she has come to own during her short time on the team. In seven tries this season, Nusbaum has come away with the top spot in the 200 free six times. She also added points with her 5:02.05 swim in the 500 free, good for third place, and her contribution to KU’s first-place 400 freestyle ‘A’ relay team that recorded a time of 3:28.23.
Also on that relay team was Straight, who padded her performance with a first-place finish in the 100 free, her first individual win of the season. Straight raced to a time of 52.10, her second-fastest time this season. She supplied more points for KU with her freestyle leg in the third-place 200 medley relay ‘B’ team that recorded a 1:47.31 swim and her tie for third place with Arkansas’ Erin Kelly in the 50 freestyle, both touching the wall at 24.23 seconds.
Though the competitive outcome was not the one he desired, Campbell believed the trip was a success in sharpening the team for the Big 12 Championship in February, which is more important in the long run. The meet, which started at 10 a.m., the same time Big 12 preliminaries will start, served as an opportunity for the swimmers to gain comfort in their daily routine for conference competition.
“As far as a dry run for Big 12s and prelims, they did a really good job of getting themselves ready to compete at a high level,” Campbell said. “They were right at or a little better than their in-season dual meet times. The reason why we were able to do that was because we were really able to take of business on the front end. From the time they woke up to the time the meet finished, they did a really good job of doing what they’re going to have to do in a few weeks at Big 12s and make sure that’s a special meet.”
“In most team sports they say if you have good workouts Monday through Friday then you’ll see it on game day, well in swimming you don’t. You really don’t see what you did until you taper, shave and put on a technical suit. You just have to be okay and roll with it and compete well. We did a really good job of that; we had some really good performances. We have traditionally struggled on the road in Arkansas. In the recent past, this has been one of our better meets. It’s not what this team is capable of, but it’s so much better than when we have really struggled in here. Today, we performed at a reasonable level considering where we are in our preparation.”
Up next will be a two-day home meet against Iowa State that will run from February 3-4. From here on out, Kansas will be concerned with only Big 12 opponents, as the Big 12 Championship follows KU’s clash with Iowa State. The team will ramp up its already intensive training to prepare for the pinnacle of the season.
“We have probably the toughest two weeks of training of the year coming up,” said Campbell. “We’re going to have Iowa State coming in next week; we’re just going to have to keep plugging away in workouts and dig deep Friday and Saturday against Iowa State. This is where the rubber is getting ready to meet the road in our training. We’re going to definitely step it up in the next two weeks and what’s awesome is after that the swimmers get to enjoy their favorite time of year, which is taper. So we’ve got to train these last two weeks at a really high level and know that we have a competitive Iowa State team coming in. We have to finish out the dual meet season and get ready for the Big 12 Championship.”
