Comerford, Barna Show Freestyle Prowess In Cardinals Sweep Over Vols

Tennessee vs Louisville

• Thursday, October 25, 2018
• Allan Jones Aquatic Center
• Knoxville, Tennessee
• Live Results
• Full Results (PDF)
• Women’s Score: Louisville 155, Tennessee 145
• Men’s Score: Louisville 156, Tennessee 144

The Louisville men and women prevailed with a pair of close victories at Tennessee on Thursday, with the men edging them by a score of 156-144 and the women topping the Lady Vols 155-145.

Women’s Meet

The Cardinals picked up eight wins out of fourteen swimming events for the meet, with senior Mallory Comerford and sophomore Mariia Astashkina leading the way with two individual event wins apiece. They also swept the diving, as Molly Fears won both the 1-meter (286.05) and 3-meter (315.53) events.

Comerford, who produced the top time in the nation in the 100, 200 and 500 freestyles earlier this month at the SMU Classic, won the 100 (48.54) and 200 free (1:46.34) here, with Tennessee juniors Stanzi Moseley (50.44) and Tess Cieplucha (1:48.83) placing 2nd in each.

Astashkina swept the breaststroke events, winning the 100 in 1:02.29 over Volunteer sophomore Nikol Popov (1:03.05), and out-touching Tennessee junior Meghan Small by .01 in the 200 in 2:15.04.

Comerford and Astashkina also teamed up with Alina Kendzior and Grace Oglesby at the beginning of the meet to win the 200 medley relay in 1:39.61 over the Vols (1:40.50), with Kendzior (25.23) and Comerford (22.00) putting up the top splits in the field on back and free, while Tennessee’s Erika Brown had the top fly leg in 23.63. Louisville junior Avery Braunecker had the fastest breast split from their ‘B’ relay in 28.01.

Also picking up wins for the Cardinals was senior Sophie Cattermole in the 1000 freestyle (9:58.17), Oglesby in the 200 fly (1:58.95) and Kendzior in the 200 back (1:56.87).

Tennessee also had a strong showing overall with six wins, including two apiece from Brown and Small. Brown won the 50 free in 22.83 over Louisville’s Arina Openysheva (23.09), and then followed up with a 52.98 in the 100 fly to win over Oglesby (53.91).

Small, who missed a third win in that 200 breast by .01, won the 100 back in 53.44 over Kendzior (53.94) and then took the 200 IM in 2:00.67 over teammates Cieplucha (2:01.02) and Alexis Yager (2:02.78). In addition to her two runner-up finishes, Cieplucha also won Tennessee’s 5th individual event in the 500 free (4:50.04) over Cattermole (4:52.84).

They capped the meet with a close win over the Cardinals in the 400 free relay, as Brown (48.91) and Moseley (49.13) put up key legs as they clocked 3:18.70 to Louisville’s 3:19.68. That gave the Vols four consecutive event wins to finish off the competition, but they fell just ten points shy of claiming the win. Comerford had the fastest split in the field for the Cards in 47.96.

On the diving side of things, Rachel Rubadue took 2nd in both events, while Ana Celaya-Hernandez and Lillian Schneider gave the Vols some points with 3rd and 4th place finishes in the 3-meter.

Men’s Meet

The men’s meet was a much different story, as Louisville was dominant in winning events (taking ten of fourteen swimming) but Tennessee’s depth and their diving kept them in the points race all the way to the end.

Seniors Marcelo Acosta and Zach Harting and junior Andrej Barna led the Cardinals with two event wins each, and sophomore Nicolas Albiero and senior Jarrett Jones also had victories.

Acosta swept the distance frees, clocking 4:26.87 in the 500 and 9:08.10 in the 1000, with Tennessee’s Sam Rice and Taylor Abbott alternating 2nd and 3rd place finishes in both. Harting swept the 100 (48.01) and 200 fly (1:47.38), and Barna did the same in the sprint frees with showings of 19.98 and 44.29. Alec Connolly led a 2-3-4 finish for the Volunteers in both the 50 and 100 in 20.28 and 44.40 respectively.

Albiero’s win came in the 200 back, where he went 1:45.06 to beat out Tennessee senior Joey Reilman (1:46.52), and Jones (1:49.83) went 1-2 with sophomore teammate Daniel Sos (1:50.21) in the 200 IM.

The Cardinals also won both relays, with Albiero, Evgenii Somov, Harting and Barna combining to edge out the Vols 1:27.43 to 1:27.56 in the 200 medley relay, and then the same four swimmers closed out the meet with a 2:56.89 win in the 400 free relay. Albiero (22.09) and Barna (19.33) had the top splits in the field on the 200 medley, and Barna’s 43.30 was the fastest in the 400 free. For Tennessee, Matthew Dunphy (24.43) and Braga Verhage (21.03) had the top splits on breast and fly in the medley, and Connolly had an impressive 43.69 anchor on the free relay.

Dunphy, a senior, was their top performer individually, claiming both the 100 (54.43) and 200 breast (1:59.42), with Somov placing 2nd in both. Their other wins came from Josh Walsh in the 200 free (1:37.07), and Matthew Garcia in the 100 back (47.80).

Colin Zeng‘s diving was also a crucial factor in keeping the Vols in the meet, as the NCAA champion won both the 1-meter (404.40) and 3-meter (395.63), going 1-2 with teammate William Hallam in the latter.