Louisville Posts Multiple Nation-Leading Times In Split With Virginia

Louisville v. Virginia

• November 2nd-3rd, 2018
• Louisville, KY
• Day 1 Recap
• Final Results
• Louisville Release
• Virginia Release
• Final Scores
  • Women: Virginia 214, Louisville 137
  • Men: Louisville 214, Virginia 137

Women

Louisville’s sole victory of the day was also the best swim of the day, in terms of where it ranks nationally.  Sophie Cattermole broke up the Cavaliers’ win streak in the very last individual event of the meet, as she blasted a 16:18.07 in the 1650 to take the number one spot in the nation so far this year.  While admittedly the 1650 isn’t contested as much as the 1000 is early in the season, it’s still worth noting that no other woman has been within 15 seconds of Cattermole so far this season.

With that exception, Virginia dominated from the beginning to the end of the session.  The Cavaliers begun with a narrow victory in the 200 medley relay, 1:39.83 to 1:39.92, and ended the day with a 3:19.21 victory in the 400 free relay.

Morgan Hill doubled for Virginia, taking the 100 fly in 53.33 and the 50 free in 22.88 after notably outsplitting Louisville’s Mallory Comerford on the anchor leg of the 400 medley relay yesterday.

Today, Comerford narrowly lost the 200 free to Paige Madden, who touched just two one-hundredths ahead of Comerford, 1:46.86 to 1:46.89.  Comerford still has the fastest time in the nation by far, having recorded a 1:42.79 at the SMU Classic a few weeks ago.

Emma Seiberlich completed the backstroke sweep with a 54.49 in the 100 today, and Kaki Christensen also earned her second victory of the meet with a 2:14.43 in the 200 breast.  Rachel Politi rounded out the individual winners with a 4:19.34 in the 400 IM.

Men

The situation was almost exactly reversed on the men’s side of the meet, as the Louisville won all except two events, and posted another two nation-leading times.

The big swims came from seniors Zach Harting and Marcelo Acosta.  Harting became the first man to drop below 47 seconds this year in the 100 fly, winning in 46.93.

Acosta, like his teammate Cattermole, took advantage of this relatively early opportunity to swim the 1650 by dropping a 15:08.35, also the fastest time so far this season.  Acosta played 5th in this event at last year’s NCAA championships.  Virginia’s Casey Brendan took 2nd with a 15:13.13, making him the 2nd-fastest man in the nation so far this season.

(Note: There were questions raised about some times at the meet which seemed out-of-line with with coaches’ stopwatches, but the results were entered as official into the database.  While times being a few tenths off might affect where Harting’s swim ranks nationally, the Louisville milers would still have the fastest times by far).

The Cardinals men had four other swims that rank in the top ten nationally as of this evening.  Daniel Sos took the 400 IM in 3:50.91, putting him 8th nation-wide so far.

Andrej Barna played a role in each of the Cardinals’ other three top ten swims of the day.  He anchored the 200 medley relay in 19.18 en route to a 1:27.21 finish that puts Louisville 5th this season.  Next, his 19.93 winning time in the 50 free moves him up to 8th in that event.  Finally, he split 43.32 as Louisville won the 400 free relay in 2:56.79, currently the 10th-fastest time this season.

Nicolas Albiero earned his 3rd win of the meet, taking the 100 back in 47.84 to go along with his victories in the 200 back and 200 fly yesterday.

The Cavaliers did manage to get their hand on the wall first in two events.   Sam Schilling outsplit Louisville’s Colten Paulson by a second over the final 50 to win 1:38.20 to 1:38.55.  Matthew Otto led a 1st-3rd Cavalier sweep of the 200 breast, winning in 1:59.25.