TENNESSEE VS. TEXAS, AUBURN
- Results
- Saturday, November 10th
- Hosted by Tennessee
- 25 Yard Course
- Dual Meet Format
FINAL TEAM SCORES:
- MEN: Texas 156.5, Tennessee 143.5
- MEN: Tennessee 233, Auburn 66
- WOMEN: Tennessee 197, Auburn 103
The Tennessee men split their meet with Texas and Auburn on Saturday, dropping a close meet to the defending national champion Longhorns and coming out with a win over the SEC rival Tigers. On the women’s side, Tennessee beat Auburn as well. The Texas women were not at this meet as they were competing at Cal on Saturday.
Tennessee All-American Erika Brown had a strong showing on the women’s side, sweeping the butterflies and winning the 100 free. First up came the 200 fly. Brown took it out with the lead in 55.37 and was able to hold off Auburn’s Bailey Nero (1:58.67) for the win in 1:57.93. She battled closely with Auburn All-American Aly Tetzloff in the 100 free, edging out Tetzloff on the back half to win 48.82 to 49.10. The 100 fly was her 3rd individual win as she hit the wall in 52.54.
Meghan Small and Amanda Nunan were also double winners in the women’s meet. Small, an SEC champion, dominated the 100 back in 53.14. In the 200 breast, she made a big push on the last 50 to clip teammates Alexis Yager (2:14.79) and Emily Sykes (2:14.91) in 2:14.49. Nunan swept the distance freestyles, recording a 4:49.47 in the 500 free after winning the 1000 free in 9:44.19.
Texas’ Ryan Harty was the only double winner on the men’s side. He clipped All-American teammate John Shebat, 47.28 to 47.34, in the 100 back with Tennessee’s Matthew Garcia (47.44) following closely in 3rd. Harty won another close one with Shebat in the 200 back, using his closing speed to win in 1:44.18 to Shebat’s 1:44.36. Tennessee’s Joey Reilman was a 3rd there in 1:44.70.
NCAA champion Townley Haas finished 4th in his signature 200 free with a 1:37.35, while Tennessee’s Josh Walsh (1:36.79) winning the race. Haas did, however, pick up a win for the Horns in the 500 free with his 4:23.00.
PRESS RELEASE – TEXAS:
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The No. 5 University of Texas Men’s Swimming and Diving team rallied for a 156.5-143.5 win over No. 15 Tennessee on Friday afternoon at the Jones Aquatic Center in Knoxville.
Score
Texas 156.5, Tennessee 143.5
Wins
1000 Freestyle – Chris Yeager (9:04.26)
100 Backstroke – Ryan Harty (47.28)
200 Butterfly – Andrew Koustik (1:46.43)
100 Freestyle – Danny Krueger (44.04)
200 Backstroke – Ryan Harty (1:44.18)
500 Freestyle – Townley Haas (4:23.00)
100 Butterfly – Sam Pomajevich (48.33)
200 Freestyle Relay – Danny Krueger, John Shebat, Drew Kibler, Tate Jackson (1:18.48)
Meet Notes
- Texas defeated their second-straight top-20 SEC opponent with the win over the No. 15 Volunteers.
- The Longhorns came from behind to beat Tennessee on the final event of the day with a win in the 200 free relay.
- Chris Yeager topped his previous season-best in the 1000 freestyle and now has the ninth-fastest pace in the NCAA this year with his 9:04.26.
- Ryan Harty and John Shebat continued their dominance in the backstroke events. Harty set the seventh-fastest time this year in the NCAA in the 200 back while Shebat matched his season-best with a 47.34. Its good enough for eighth in the NCAA this year.
- Freshman Andrew Koustik dropped the best time for the Longhorns this year in the 200 fly. His 1:46.43 is good enough for an NCAA ‘B’ cut and a top-10 time in the NCAA this year.
Next Up
The Texas divers will be back at the Texas Swimming Center for the Texas Hall of Fame Diving Invitational from Nov. 14-16 and the swimmers will compete in the Texas Swimming Hall of Fame Invitational two weeks later.
PRESS RELEASE – TENNESSEE:
KNOXVILLE, Tenn.– The Tennessee women defeated Auburn and the men’s team split a double dual against the Tigers and the defending NCAA champion Texas on Friday at Allan Jones Aquatic Center.
The No. 24 ranked Tennessee women (4-1) were propelled by Erika Brown’s second consecutive three-win performance this season. The Lady Vols won a season-high 13 of 16 events to defeat No. 17 ranked Auburn 197-103.
The 15th-ranked Tennessee men (4-2) came just short of sweeping the day behind senior team captain Matthew Dunphy’s impressive performance. Going into the final competition of the afternoon the Vols were one event win away from knocking off Texas, the defending National Champions, but the Longhorns clinched the 200-freestyle relay to end the day. Overall, the Tennessee men won seven of 17 events to defeat Auburn 233-66 and drop to fifth-ranked Texas 156.5-143.5.
The junior duo of Brown and Meghan Small carried the fight in the women’s competition, as Brown had wins in three events and Small registered two. Small notched victories in the 100 backstroke(53.14) and the 200 breaststroke (2:14.49), while Brown tallied wins in the 200 butterfly (1:57.93), the 50 freestyle (48.42) and the 100 butterfly (52.54). Sophomore Amanda Nunan also swept the distance events with a pair of wins in the 1000-yard freestyle and the 500-yard freestyle.
Individual winners for the Tennessee women included: Nikol Popov in the 100 breaststroke (1:01.99), Madeline Banic in the 50 freestyle (22.56), Rachel Rubadue in the 1-meter (289.90) and Tess Cieplucha in the 400-individual medley.
Dunphy led the men’s team with wins in the 100 breaststroke (54.01) and the 200 breaststroke (1:57.93). Zhipeng (Colin) Zeng remained unbeaten after winning both the 1-meter (382.60) and the 3-meter (413.45).
Individual winners for the Vols were Josh Walsh in the 200 freestyle (1:36.79) and Kyle DeCoursey in the 50 freestyle.
The Tennessee diving team will hit the road to Austin for the Texas Diving Invitational, which runs from Nov. 14 to 16. After, both the swimming and diving teams will host the Tennessee Invitational in Knoxville at the Allan Jones Aquatic Center from Nov. 29 to Dec. 1.
QUOTES
Lance Asti, Associate Head Coach (Men)
“Looking at this meet and preparing, we knew Texas was going to be a really strong team. Auburn is in a rebuilding phase. The message was really clear coming off the bus against Purdue and Wisconsin. We pulled all the guys in and said, ‘We want to go toe-to-toe with these guys. I want to go eye-to-eye and not give them a single win just because of the name on their cap.’ Just because they’re defending champions doesn’t mean they’ve won any race. I wanted to know we would do everything we could to make sure Texas earned everything that they could. Our guys did that. They didn’t give anything just because a guy had Olympic Rings tattooed on his back. Our guys just stuck it to them any way they could. I’m thrilled with our guys’ performance. I’m overwhelmed at the way they came and competed against the defending national champions. Our guys didn’t back down from anything, at any moment. Most meets there are ebbs and flows and sometimes you have a big performance and sometimes you let your guard down. I felt like we were on the attack from the beginning to the very last relay.”
Ashley Jahn, Associate Head Coach (Women)
“The meet was great. This week being the third week that we’ve raced, the women had some really clear goals. Again, we got to see some people in new events, which was great. They made some really great changes from week one to last week at Purdue and today. It really has been an incredible progression of them seeing something they want to make a change to and then making that change. We had some real breakout swims today. Amanda Nunan was incredible. She’s been putting together good stuff in practice. Her racing the first two weeks wasn’t bad by any means but it wasn’t what we knew she was capable of. Today she just really attacked the front end of the races and that got her into a rhythm early. That was fantastic.”
Dave Parrington, Diving Coach
“Colin again did a really nice job. He was solid today. He did some really good dives, but he was a little under the weather, so we had him sleep in this morning. Maybe he had a little lethargy from that, but he competed really well in the competition when he needed to hit dives. He missed his last dive. He was feeing pretty tired, but he tried to go for it. Jordan Windle was a little off his game, but it’s hard to roll in here — they came in this morning and got up on the boards and competed. It’s tough there. We’ll see them next week at there place. Nice job by Rachel. She did some nice stuff today, hit some key dives on 1-meter. Honestly we like to win the events, but the highlight for me today was Keegan Richardson. He really took some major strides today. Last year he battled and battled but didn’t come close to zones. He finally got it in the last chance meet. Today he qualified on 1-meter for the first time, then turned around and did the same on 3-meter with career highs in both events.”
Tennessee vs. Auburn/Texas
Tennessee Winners
Women (13 of 16)
200 Medley Relay – Tennessee (1:38.72)
1000 Free – Amanda Nunan (9:44.19)
100 Back – Meghan Small (53.14)
100 Breast – Nikol Popov (1:01.99)
200 Fly – Erika Brown (1:57.93)
50 Free – Madeline Banic (22.56)
100 Free – Erika Brown (48.42)
200 Breast – Meghan Small (2:14.49)
500 Free – Amanda Nunan (4:49.47)
100 Fly – Erika Brown (52.54)
1-meter – Rachel Rubadue (289.90)
400 IM – Tess Cieplucha (4:13.31)
200 Free Relay – Tennessee (1:29.49)
Men (7 of 16 events)
200 Medley Relay – Tennessee (1:27.05)
200 Free – Josh Walsh (1:36.79)
100 Breast – Matthew Dunphy (54.01)
50 Free – Kyle DeCoursey (20.16)
1-meter – Zhipeng (Colin) Zeng (382.60)
200 Breast – Matthew Dunphy (1:57.93)
3-meter – Zhipeng (Colin) Zeng (413.45)
PRESS RELEASE – AUBURN:
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Auburn’s men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams both fell in dual meets at Tennessee on Friday, with the women falling 197-103 and the men 233-66.
“I enjoy winning and the team enjoys winning so from that standpoint it was a disappointing loss,” Auburn head coach Gary Taylor said. “At the same time I’m really happy with the efforts, the enthusiasm and the fight to the finish that I saw from both squads.”
Aly Tetzloff and Sonnele Oeztuerk each earned wins for the Auburn women. Tetzloff won the 200 free in 1:47.41 and Oeztuerk the 200 back in 1:56.62, which was a NCAA B cut time.
Auburn also racked up six runner-up swims, with Erin Falconer taking three of them. Falconer finished in second in the 1,000 free (10:04.69), 100 back (54.55) and 200 back (1:59.99), with her 200 back time being a NCAA B cut time.
“Erin Falconer continues to go above and beyond doing whatever is needed by our staff and team,” Taylor said. “She had some really good performances in the backstroke, the 1,000 free and the relay.”
Auburn’s remaining second-place finishes came from Bailey Nero in the 200 fly (1:58.67), Claire Fisch in the 50 free (22.69) and Tetzloff in the 100 free (49.10), all of which were NCAA B cuts.
On the men’s side, Russell Noletto claimed a win in the final individual race, touching in 3:57.13 to win the 400 IM. That was on the heels of a taxing distance triple in which he also placed fifth in the 200 fly (1:51.73) and fourth in the 500 free (4:31.53).
Auburn’s men also managed runner-up finishes in the 500 and 1,000 frees out of Josh Dannhauser (4:29.33 and 9:13.93, respectively) and Foster Ballard in the 200 fly (1:49.25). Dannhouser rounded out his day with a fourth-place showing in the 400 IM (4:01.40) while Ballard also picked up a fourth-place finish in the 100 fly (49.35).
“Obviously I’m not excited about the final outcome but in terms of the heart, determination and effort they really showed out and stepped up in a really hard situation,” Taylor said. “Sometimes you don’t lose, the other team just wins and Tennessee was ready to go.”
The Texas men were also at the meet, but did not factor into the scoring of the Auburn-Tennessee meet.
DIVING RECAP
Alison Maillard won the 3-meter for the second time this year, scoring a Zone Qualifying 320.65 to top Tennessee’s Rachel Rubadue (303.00) by 17.65 points. She then took second on the 1-meter to Rubadue with a 284.45, also a Zone score. Wendy Espina-Esquivel was third on both the 3-meter (270.25) and the 1-meter (255.30).
“Alison won the 3-meter and was able to reintroduce a front three-and-a-half pike in her list, which greatly increases her degree of difficulty,” Auburn diving coach Jeff Shaffer said. “Wendy showed continued progress grabbing two third-place finishes and helping the team.”
For the men, Conner Pruitt took second on the 3-meter (372.00) and third on the 1-meter (336.10) while Scott Lazeroff was third on the 3-meter (361.20) and fifth on the 1-meter (306.75), with both collecting Zone Qualifying Scores on both boards.
“Really pleased and proud of Conner Pruitt’s efforts today,” Shaffer said. “His work is starting to show with two personal-bests today. He also was able to compete two new dives, one on 1-meter, a front three-and-a-half, and the other a front two-and-a-half with two twists on 3-meter, both scoring over 60 points.
“Scott was a little better on 3-meter than 1-meter,” Shaffer said. “He still needs to work on being more consistent on take-offs and finishes.”
Auburn returns to action in less than a week, traveling to Georgia Tech for a three-day invitational beginning Thursday, Nov. 15, in Atlanta. Other teams expected to compete are SEC foes Alabama, Florida and South Carolina as well as East Carolina, Florida State and North Carolina.
