Kentucky Women, Alabama Men Lead After 1st Day of Dual Meet

Alabama v. Kentucky

• December 17-19, 2020
• Alabama Aquatics Center, Tuscaloosa, AL
• Course: SCY
• Results on Meet Mobile: Alabama v. Kentucky 

The University of Alabama and the University of Kentucky kicked-off a multi-day dual meet in Tuscaloosa on Thursday. After a tight day of racing, the Alabama men lead the Wildcats by a score of 80-70, while the Kentucky women lead the Alabama women 79-71. 

Alabama began the meet with a win in the 1650 freestyle, courtesy of junior Kensey McMahon, who posted a time of 16:20.33. However, Kentucky immediately fired back with junior Adam Posipal, who won the men’s event in a time of 15:32.42, leading a 1-2-3-4 finish for the wildcats. 

Rhyan White led then led the Tide in the women’s 200 backstroke, unseating Kentucky’s dominant backstroke group to claim victory in a time of 1:54.10. However, the Kentucky women still managed to claim 2-4th place in the event. Wildcat Kyle Barker claimed victory in the men’s 200 backstroke, finishing in a time of 1:46.17. 

In a tight 100 freestyle field, Alabama junior Morgan Scott prevailed over the competition, finishing first with a time of 49.28. Similarly, freshman Matt King claimed victory in the men’s 100 freestyle for the Crimson Tide, winning in a time of 44.36. 

The Kentucky women dominated the 200 breaststroke, finishing claiming the top 5 spots. The group was led by senior Bailey Bonnett, who won in a time of 2:11.53. Sophomore Derek Maas dominated the men’s race, winning by over 3 seconds in a time of 2:00.39 to give Alabama a slight edge. 

The final individual event of the day, the 200 butterfly, saw another tight race on the women’s side. Ultimately, Kentucky junior Izzy Gati hit the wall first with a time of 1:58.48. Gati’s teammate Mason Wilby crushed the men’s field to win by 3.5 seconds, finishing in 1:46.22. 

Alabama closed the day by sweeping the 400 freestyle relays. The women’s team of Morgan Scott, Flora Molnar, Kalia Antoniou and Jada Surrell won the event by two seconds after finishing in 3:19.51, while Matt King, Jonathan Berneburg, Sam DiSette and Andrew Shea clocked a 2:58.92 to claim a three-second victory in the men’s race. 

Kentucky’s Kyndal Knight swept the diving events, winning both the women’s 1m and 3m events. Her teammate Mingil Zhang won the men’s 3m event, while runner-up Kevin Li from Alabama went on to claim the top spot in the 1m event.