Duke vs Queens vs University of Tennessee
- January 8th, 2022
- Durham, NC
- SCY (25y) Double Dual Meet
- Full Results
Final Scores
Men:
- University of Tennessee (144) – Queens (115)
- University of Tennessee (175) – Duke (87)
- Queens (151) – Duke (110)
Women:
- University of Tennessee (211) – Queens (48)
- University of Tennessee (167) – Duke (94)
- Duke (192) – Queens (62)
The #6 Lady Vols and #15 Vols captured commanding victories in their double dual meet against Duke and Queens University (Division II). On the women’s side, Tennessee beat Duke 167-94 and Queens 211-48. On the men’s side, UT defeated Duke 175-87 and Queens 144-115, which was the closest scoring dual for the Vols.
Queens, while a Division II program, is the best Division II program in the country, having won six consecutive national championships at that level.
Women
The Lady Vols’ performances were led by freshman Josephine Fuller and junior Anna-Julia Kutsch. Both Fuller and Kutsch helped UT open up with a win in the 200 medley relay (1:39.46) through their backstroke (25.50) and freestyle (22.27) splits. Kutsch had the fastest freestyle split in the field, and nearly matched her time in the individual 50 (22.64). Kutsch swept the individual freestyle events and split 22.26 on Tennessee’s 1st place 200 free relay.
Fuller swept the backstrokes, posting top times in both the 100 (53.99) and 200 (1:57.71) distances. Fuller’s final event featured a 23.20 anchor split on Tennessee’s “C” 200 free relay.
Ellen Walshe was able to secure a victory in the 200 IM (1:59.59) and was the only swimmer under the 2:00 mark. Notably, she was on Tennessee’s “C” 200 medley relay and split 24.53 on the fly leg. Walshe, an Irish Olympian, is known as a fly and IM specialist. She represented her home nation at the Tokyo 2021 Olympics in both the 100 fly and 200 IM. At the 2021 SC World Championships, she won a silver medal in the 400 IM.
Kristen Stege was the only athlete to break 10:00 in the 1000 (9:58.81), finishing 1st by over 13 seconds. Stege was also 2nd in the 500 free (4:54.57) and 9th in the 200 free (1:55.20).
The Vols swept several events on Saturday, but Duke and Queens were able to earn some victories. One of these events was the 200 fly, where Duke was able to secure a 1-2 finish with the help of Cabell Whitlow (2:00.53) and Catherine Purnell (2:00.74).
Duke also earned big points from Sally Foley‘s victory in the 200 breast. Foley’s massive 33.77 final 50 split allowed her to pull away from Tennessee’s Mona McSharry (2:14.50), who only split 34.7 on the final 50.
Duke’s 3rd win of the night came from Yi Xuan Chang, who bested the field with a 4:52.68 in the 500 free. Tennessee was able to secure a 2-3-4 finish, so they didn’t lose too many points.
Queens came out on top in the 100 fly, as Cece Mayer (54.46) was the only athlete under 55 seconds.
Other Event Champions:
- Tennessee’s Julia Mrozinksi won a tight battle in the 200 free (1:48.52), out-touching Duke’s Chang (1:48.65), who made a late charge and almost split sub-:26 on the final 50.
- Tennessee’s Mona McSharry was able to secure the victory in the 100 breast (1:00.95). She won a bronze medal in the short course meters version of this event at December’s World Championships, and is the top-ranked swimmer in the NCAA in the yards event so far this season. This time, though, indicates a heavy block of training – her previous slowest time this season was 59.90 from the team’s dual meet against NC State.
Men
On the men’s side, it was Queens that had the early momentum as they out-touched Tennessee’s 200 medley relay, 1:27.85 to 1:27.94. Queens was able to secure the win with the help of an 19.48 freestyle split from Skyler Cook-Weeks.
Queens also won the final event of the meet, which happened to be another relay. Queens’ “A” relay of Skyler Cook-Weeks, Matej Dusa, Alex Kunert, and Kimani Gregory (1:19.47) defeated Tennessee’s “A” relay of Jordan Crooks, Aleksey Tarasenko, Micah Chambers, and Scott Scanlon (1:19.93).
Dusa also won the individual 50 free (19.76) over Crooks (19.94). However, Crooks answered right back and defeated Dusa the 100 free, taking the race out in 20.93 and finishing as the only athlete under 44 seconds (43.66).
Duke’s Brendan Driscoll had a commanding victory in the 1000 free (9:14.15), winning the vent by over 7 seconds. Driscoll maintained control and made his move at the 400 mark and passed up UT’s Joey Tepper (9:21.63). At that point, Driscoll never looked back and made a statement at the end, splitting a 53.12 on the final 100.
Cole Reznick was able to secure another victory for the Blue Devils in the 200 IM (1:50.84), though Queen’s Balázs Berecz split 25.48 on the freestyle leg and almost ran him down.
Tennessee got momentum rolling with a sweep in the 200 free, securing a 1-2-3 finish and lots of points for the Vols. The charge was led by Seth Bailey, who won the event in 1:38.36. Will Jackson (1:38.95) and Aleksey Tarasenko (1:39.21) rounded out the top 3.
Queen’s made another statement with a 1-2 finish in the 200 fly. Yannick Plasil (1:46.11) and Alex Kunert (1:47.30) were the only sub-1:50 swims in the field. However, their late charge wasn’t enough to hold off the Vols.
Other Event Champions:
- Queens went 1-3-4 in 100 back which was led by Finn Howard (Queens) who almost broke 49 seconds (49.06).
- Tennessee went 1-2 in the 100 breast, with Jarel Dillard (Tennessee) taking the victory (54.55).
- Each team put an athlete in the top 3, but it was Harrison Lierz (Tennessee) who got his hand to the wall first in the 200 back (1:48.33).
- Jared Dillard wasn’t able to secure a sweep in the breaststroke events, placing 2nd to his teammate Lyubomir Epitropov (2:00.55) in the 200 breast.
- After being passed up in the 1000, it was Tepper (Tennessee) who made the charge at the end, splitting 26.18 on the last 50 to take the 500 free win (4:29.49).
- Tennessee’s Kayky Mota (47.81) used his opening speed to defeat Queen’s Kunert (48.07) in the 100 fly.
