Kentucky Women Dominate 800 Free Relay, 100 Back, on Day 2 of Ohio State Invite

by Robert Gibbs 0

November 22nd, 2019 College, News, Previews & Recaps

2019 OHIO STATE FALL INVITE

  • Thursday, November 21 – Saturday, November 23, 2019
  • Columbus, Ohio (Ohio State University)
  • Prelims – long course meters (LCM)
  • Finals – short course yards (SCY)
  • Live results
  • Day 2 Full Results

The Kentucky Wildcat women closed out the night’s action with arguably the most dominant performance of the entire session, a 7:01.40 victory in the 800 free relay that was over 11 seconds faster than any other squad’s time. Asia Seidt led off in 1:44.92, almost three seconds than her previous official best time of 1:47.84 from early 2016. Freshman Beth McNeese split a solid 1:46.80 after swimming a three second lifetime best of 1:47.32 earlier in the session. Sophomore Riley Gaines split a solid 1:45.13 on the third leg, and Ali Galyer anchored in 1:44.55, the fastest split in the field.

That’s just off the NCAA ‘Automatic’ time, and is among the fastest times in the nation this season. The Ohio State women finished 2nd in 7:12.07.

Unsurprisingly, the Kentucky women, long known for an elite backstroke group, also dominated the 100 back earlier in the evening, taking three of the top four spots. Seidt won in 51.58, while fellow senior Galyer took 3rd in 53.07. Sandwiched between them was freshman Caitlin Brooks, who shaved a few hundredths off her lifetime best for a new best time of 52.21.

The Notre Dame men dominated the 400 IM in similar fashion, racking up five of the top six times, with four of those times coming from freshmen and the other from a sophomore. Freshman Jack Hoagland has had a strong opening few months of his college career, and continued that momentum tonight by winning in 3:46.95, taking over two seconds off his previous lifetime best.

One of the most exciting races of the evening was the women’s 200 free. Notre Dame’s Abbie Dolan took an early lead, but Galyer slowly reeled her in, and the two swimmers were exactly tied at 1:18.14 with 50 yards to go. Galyer split 26.50 on that 50, Dolan split 27.07, giving Galyer the victory, 1:44.64 to 1:45.21. That’s Galyer’s 2nd-best time ever.

The men’s 200 free turned out to be another exciting race, as the top three men finished within a tenth of a second of each other. Notre Dame’s Zach Yeadon came home in 23.86 to run down teammate Sadler McKeen and OSU’s Paul Delakis. The Fighting Irish sophomores ended up touching exactly together in 1:34.87, while Delakis ended up 3rd in 1:34.97. Ruslan Gaziev, who’s training at OSU while redshirting for the Olympic year, but swimming unattached for this meet, was just a whisker behind Delakis, finishing in 1:35.02.

Other Results

  • A 21.69 anchor leg by Freya Rayner gave the Buckeye women a come from behind victory in the first event of the evening, the 200 medley relay, as they beat Kentucky, 1:37.37 to 1:37.52.
  • The Buckeye men had the fastest two teams in the 200 medley relay, as they went 1:26.21 and 1:26.60. Cameron Craig anchored the ‘A’ relay in 18.90. Later, Craig would win the 100 fly in 46.57, marking his first best time in that event since 2016, although that’s probably largely because he’s focused on the 200 free in college.
  • VT’s Joelle Vereb won the 100 fly in 52.32, just off her best time. She came back later in the meet to take 2nd in the 100 breast with a 1:00.42, just behind OSU’s Hanna Gresser (1:00.34).
  • OSU sophomore Jason Mathews won the 100 breast in 53.69, good enough for a NCAA ‘B’ cut.
  • OSU senior Kathrin Demler blasted a 4:03.96 in the 400 IM, just three-tenths of a second off a NCAA ‘A’ cut and a lifetime best by over three seconds.
  • Three men finished under the NCAA ‘B’ cut in the 100 back, led by VT’s Samuel Tornqvist (47.12). Craig took 2nd in 47.62.
  • McKeen’s 1:33.63 split helped Notre Dame to a 6:21.57 victory in the 800 free relay. Kentucky took 2nd in 6:26.64, with all four men splitting 1:36-something.

Scores Through Day 2

Women

  1. Ohio State – 1701
  2. Kentucky – 1582.5
  3. Notre Dame – 1199.5
  4. UCLA – 1164.5
  5. Virginia Tech – 927.5
  6. Yale – 750
  7. Buffalo – 493
  8. Ohio – 359

Men

  1. Ohio State – 1631
  2. Notre Dame – 1581
  3. Yale – 1437.5
  4. Virginia Tech – 1216
  5. Kentucky – 1215.5

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