Tennessee Men Edge Out Auburn by 7 Points

AUBURN VS. TENNESSEE VS. WISCONSIN

• Results
• Hosted by Auburn
• Friday, October 13th – Saturday, October 14th
• 25 Yards
• Dual Meet Format

FINAL TEAM SCORES:

• WOMEN: Auburn 181, Tennessee 172
• WOMEN: Auburn 205, Wisconsin 146
• WOMEN: Tennessee 2014, Wisconsin 149
• MEN: Tennessee 180, Auburn 173
• MEN: Auburn 256, Wisconsin 97
• MEN: Tennessee 180, Auburn 173

The Auburn women and Tennessee men maintained their leads to secure 2 victories each in their dual meet against Wisconsin this weekend. On day 2, the Tigers’ Aly Tetzloff and Breanna Roman helped propel them to victory with individual wins.

Tetzloff won the 100 back, using her front half speed to establish her lead over Tennessee’s Meghan Small. She flipped in 25.95 en route to a 53.58 victory, followed by Small in 54.04. Roman won the 100 breast, holding off Tennessee’s Katie Armitage with a 1:02.60 to Armitage’s 1:02.83.

On the men’s side, Hugo Gonzalez won his double again for the Tigers, but it wasn’t enough to get past the Volunteers in the final team standings. Gonzalez, a Junior World Champion, went head-to-head with Tennessee All-American Sam McHugh (3:48.42) in the 400 IM, pulling ahead on the breaststroke leg en route to his 3:47.78 victory. He picked up his 4th victory of the weekend in the 100 back, posting a 48.58 to out-touch Tennessee’s Matthew Garcia (48.63).

Taylor Abbott and Peter Stevens helped the Volunteers secure victory with individual wins. Stevens won his signature 100 breast, turning in a 54.34 to finish over a second ahead of the field. Abbott was the only man to break 4:30 in the 500 free, dominating the race with his 4:25.89.

PRESS RELEASE – WISCONSIN:

AUBURN, Ala. – The Wisconsin swimming and diving team wrapped up its double dual meet with Auburn and Tennessee by claiming four more individual wins and a number of solid finishes Saturday.

Neither the women’s or men’s team were able to get a team win, but Wisconsin coach Whitney Hite still saw the meet as a positive starting point for the season for his 12th-ranked women and 25th-ranked men.

“I thought we did a nice job of racing and competing,” Hite said. “We didn’t get a win, and the scores are lopsided on the men’s side, but I think we did a nice job of racing.”

The UW women fell to Auburn by a score of 205-146 and to Tennessee by a count of 204-149.

On the men’s side, Auburn defeated the Badgers 256-97 and Tennessee claimed the team win with a score of 261-91.

At this point in the season, Hite is focused on individual improvement over team wins. He says, “I’m not too concerned with the score. I don’t enjoy getting pounded like that, but this is a starting point for us. The focus is on February and March.”

The Badgers will have another opportunity to face a top-notch opponent next week when they host Georgia at the UW Natatorium.

“We’re looking forward to taking another step forward against a good Georgia team,” Hite said. “We’ll be ready to compete.”

Notable
• The women’s 200-yard medley relay squad of Jess Unicomb, Marissa Berg, Beata Nelson and Emmy Sehmann was victorious, finishing with a winning time of 1:40.12.

• Maddie Tew won the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:53.66.

• Senior Abby Jagdfeld won the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:48.44. Emmy Sehmann placed fourth in the same event with a time of 1:49.73.

• The women’s 400-yard free relay squad of Jagdfeld, Sehmann, Unicomb and Beata Nelson took second-place with a time of 3:19.63.

• Nelson took second in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 54.00, good for the 10th-best time in school history.

• The men’s 200-yard medley relay squad of Matt Novinski, Griffin Back, Todd McCarthyand Tyler Zelen took third, coming in at 1:30.51.

• Cooper Hodge swam to a third-place finish in the 400-yard individual medley with a time of 3:56.99.

• Unicomb finished third in the 100-yard backstroke (54.82).

• Freshman Matt Novinski placed third in the 100-yard backstroke, finishing in 48.88, only 0.3 second off the pace.

• Senior Victor Goicoechea took third (4:32.92) and Eric Geunes took fifth (4:37.11) in the 500-yard freestyle.

Quotable
“Maddie Tew has done a great job this far. She had a great meet. Her 500 freestyle was an awesome race.”

“I thought Matt Novinski had a great meet. It was coming-out party in a way, being his first meet as a Badger.”

“That 200 freestyle was impressive. It was 15 minutes into the meet, and Abby Jagdfeldand Emmy Sehmann had already raced, but were still able to finish first and fourth. That’s pretty damn good.”

“The people who came in and succeeded were ready to go. Now we’ll get the rest of the team going.”

– Head coach Whitney Hite

Up Next
The Badgers will be back in the water on Thursday, Oct. 19, when they host Georgia at the UW Natatorium. Swimming events begin at 3 p.m. (CT).

PRESS RELEASE – AUBURN:

The No. 15 Auburn women’s and swimming diving team knocked off a pair of top-15 squads while the No. 10 men split their results in a two-day, double dual meet with Wisconsin and Tennessee on Friday and Saturday at the Martin Aquatics Center.

Auburn’s women downed No. 14 Tennessee, 181-172, and knocked off No. 12 Wisconsin, 205-146.

The Auburn men toppled No. 25 Wisconsin, 256-97, but lost a hard fought battle to No. 18 Tennessee, 180-173.

“Tennessee and Wisconsin gave us some real tough racing over the course of two days,” Auburn head coach Brett Hawke said. “I’m really proud of how the team responded, especially today. The women continued to win the tough races and the men found a way to win the close races.”

Aly Tetzloff won the 100 back in 53.58 and also led off Auburn’s top 200 medley team in 25.16. The remainder of the relay team of Breanna Roman (28.90), Haley Black (24.00) and Julie Meynen (22.59) combined for a 1:40.65 to take second behind Wisconsin (1:40.12).

Roman was not finished there, touching first in the 100 breast in 1:02.60.

Alison Maillard took top honors on the 3-meter, scoring a 345.10, her second Zone Qualifying score of the weekend. Freshman Erin Norton also picked up a Zone score, finishing third with a 281.75.

Zoe Thatcher (4:20.89) and Carly Cummings (4:21.15) went 2-3 in the 400 IM

In the men’s races, Auburn’s top 200 medley relay team of Hugo Gonzalez (22.52), Peter Holoda (26.17), Luis Martinez (21.35) and Zach Apple (20.00) combined for a second-place finish of 1:30.03 behind Tennessee’s 1:26.71.

Apple, the school record holder in the 200 free, won the event 1:38.24, just ahead of teammate Owen Upchurch (1:38.81).

Gonzalez, who won the 200 back and 200 IM on Friday, took the 400 IM(3:47.78) and 100 back (48.58) on Saturday to give him four individual wins in his first meet for Auburn.

Martinez also took the top spot in the 100 fly in 47.22.

Pete Turnham scored a Zone Qualifying score on the 1-meter, taking third with a 336.30.

Auburn closed out the meet with a win in the 400 free relay (2:55.63) behind Apple (44.13), Brody Heck (44.20), Hugo Morris (44.29) and Holoda (43.01).

Auburn’s win over Tennessee in the women’s meet was its first in a dual meet since the 2007-08 season and came in front of a crowd of 1,227 fans.

Auburn returns to competition in a week, playing host to Texas A&M on Saturday, Oct. 21, at 1 p.m. at the Martin Aquatics Center.

Team Scores
Men
Tennessee 180
Auburn 173

Auburn 256
Wisconsin 97

Women
Auburn 181
Tennessee 172

Auburn 205
Wisconsin 146

PRESS RELEASE – TENNESSEE:

AUBURN, Ala. — The Tennessee men swept and the women went 1-1 on Saturday to conclude the top-25 double dual meet against Auburn and Wisconsin.

The No. 18 Tennessee men (3-0, 1-0 SEC) narrowly defeated host and 10th-ranked Auburn 180-173 and beat No. 25 Wisconsin 261-91. The 14th-ranked UT women (2-1, 0-1) beat No. 12 Wisconsin 204-149 but lost to No. 15 Auburn 205-146.

The teams do not face every season, but it was the UT men’s first dual meet victory against Auburn since 2008 and the first on the road since 1995 as part of a perfect 7-0 season.

Senior Peter John Stevens earned a victory in the 100-yard breaststroke (54.34), his signature event, and he swam the breaststroke leg on the winning 200 medley relay team with Braga Verhage, Ryan Coetzee and Kyle DeCoursey. The Vols touched the wall more than two seconds ahead of Auburn in the race to lead off Saturday’s competition.

Junior transfer Colin Zeng swept the springboard events at the meet, earning a victory on the 1-meter springboard in 377.50, followed by Liam Stone.

Sophomore Taylor Abbott won the 500 freestyle (4:25.89) after recording a pair of second-place finishes Friday.

In total, the UT men won 10 of the 19 men’s events.

The Tennessee women earned three more individual events, giving them five for the meet.

Sophomore Tess Cieplucha won the 400 IM by more than six seconds in 4:14.89 and also placed second in the 500 freestyle later in the session. Sophomore Erika Brown won the 100 butterfly in 52.99.

The Lady Vols also won the 400 freestyle relay to conclude the meet as Meghan Small, Erika Brown, Stanzi Moseley and Tjasa Pintar finished in 3:18.95.

UP NEXT: Tennessee hosts Kentucky and Indiana on Oct. 27 at 11 a.m. Eastern. Admission is free.

QUOTES

Tennessee Head Coach Matt Kredich:

“I was really impressed with our competitiveness and focus during a challenging two-day format. We opened with great intensity. We were a little rusty, it seemed, but no one got too rattled by close races we came on the short end of. I think we go better throughout the weekend. It was a tough turnaround. Finished at six and started at nine this morning. It challenged our ability to prepare and endurance. We came out swinging. There were highlights, but I thought in every event, we had people race extraordinarily well and come up with big performances.

“It seemed that Matt Garcia won the 100 backstroke. It turned out he didn’t. The timing system said that he didn’t, but it was an extraordinary performance by Matt. That built on some momentum we generated. The men’s 200 medley relay was very fast for this time of the season. That got us off to a great start today too. There was never momentum taken away from us.

“We have great depth on both teams, more than we’ve had in recent memory. We can count on a lot of people to be very competitive. If they aren’t competing for the win, they’re competing for third place. We had people swim in-season best times. When we are in dual meets, we don’t expect the same level of performance as someone rested and in a technical suit. We look at the progression and for the most part, we’re swimming a lot faster than we have at this time in years past.”

Tennessee Diving Coach Dave Parrington:

“On the men’s side, I’m pleased to take first and second in both events and Nick (Rusek) taking fourth today. It was good performances this early in the season and good competing, particularly in today’s event. They’re pushing each other day in and day out in competition.

“I was really pleased with Rachel coming in yesterday and picking up a really good win against an extremely strong diver from Auburn. She’s raised her standard and picked up the win. Today, Rachel missed her last two dives to finish second, but it was a very productive weekend for her. Ana (Hernandez) made some freshman mistakes we will continue to work on.”