The Liberty University women beat the Richmond Spiders 189-105 on Liberty’s senior night, setting four pool records in the process.
Liberty was led by junior Kendall Hough, who scored wins in the 100 back, 100 free, and 50 free.
Hough won the 100 back in 56.63, breaking the previous pool record, set by Emily Kaufman of Liberty in 2013, by almost a half second. Her teammate Emily Duff finished second in 58.26. Maggie Pope of Richmond came in at 59.84 for third
Hough then won the 50 free in 24.32, and her teammates, Meghan Babcock and Cori Gary were second and third in 24.40 and 25.65.
Hough”s third win was the 100 free. She finished with a 52.53. Her teammates, Babcock and Gary, switched places to complete the trio’s second sweep of the night. Gary came in second with a 53.18 and Babcok in third with a 53.84.
The first three pool records came in the first three individual events, the 1000 and 200 freestyles, and the 100 back, which was set by Hough.
Liberty junior Hannah Wakeley won the 1000 with a time of 10:26.18, breaking the old pool mark of 10:27.56. Her teammate, freshman Sarah Browning, was second with a time of 10:35.53.
Next came a record for Heather McCorkel, who won the 200 with a time of 1:52.32, almost two full seconds ahead of Richmond’s Annie Lane, who finished second in 1:54.17.
Freshman Prudence Rooker of Liberty set the fourth pool record of the night in the 200 IM, coming in at 2:07.27. Rooker was over two seconds ahead of Richmond’s Lane, who was second in 2:09.95. Rooker also won the 100 breast earlier in the meet with a time of 1:05.58. Her teammate, Morgan Noonan was second in 1:07.47, followed by Erin Barry of Richmond in 1:08.16.
Wakeley won the 200 fly in 2:06.49, her second win of the night, in one of the closest races of the meet. Richmond’s Melissa Ross was just a hair behind, finishing 2:06.56. However, Wakeley and Ross were way ahead of the rest of the field. Liberty’s Ranndi Grubbs was third in 2:11.70. Richmond’s Meredith Gouger was fourth in 2:11.81.
Duff dominated the 200 back, finishing almost five full seconds ahead of Richmond’s Rachel Dumez. Duff finished in 2:05.07, Dumez came in at 2:09.75. Natalie Beale was 2:10.74, good for a third place finish for Liberty.
Noonan and Rooker finished one and two for Liberty in the 200 breast in 2:22.85 and 2:23.08. Barry was third for Richmond in 2:23.30 while Erin Dunstan was fourth for Richmond in 2:31.73.
Following the 200 breast, McCorkel scored her second victory of the night with a victory in the 500. McCorkel finished in the 5:06.55,llowed by Kristin Vandeventer, also of Liberty, in 5:10.01. Gouger came in at third for Richmond in 5:12.07.
Richmond scored their only win of the night in the 100 fly. Junior Kelly Yang took home the victory in a time of 56.35, two seconds ahead of Liberty freshman Kendall Hart, who was 58.45. Anna Fetter finished in 58.55 for a third place finish for Richmond.
Liberty won both relays. The 200 medley relay team of Duff, Rooker, Kendall Hart, and Babcock touched first in 1:46.94. The 200 free relay team of Chelsea Pond, McCorkel, Gary, and Hough won with a 1:37.25.
Full results are available here
