Tennessee Sweeps Kentucky, Falls to Indiana

Friday, October 31

Knoxville, Tenn.

2:00 PM

University of Tennessee

Indiana & Kentucky

October 31, 2014 | Swimming & Diving

Results

Oct. 31, 2014

PHOTOS

Inside Diving

In a diving session which featured about 20 divers among the three universities, Tennessee's four representatives fared well in both the 1-meter and 3-meter competitions. Redshirt junior Mauricio Robles earned a pair of top-three finishes to lead the way for the Vols.

The Monterrey, Mexico, native began the afternoon by scoring a 365.40 in the 1-meter, thanks to some consistent high scoring and a high score of 74.80 to finish the event. Robles followed that strong effort by breaking the 400-point mark, finishing in second place with a score of 404.15. Michael Howell earned a pair of top-7 finishes, scoring a 260.20 in the 1-meter and a 288.70 in the 3-meter. Meanwhile, the duo of Sam Lera and Sarah Chewning also competed in a very tough diving group, finishing in near the middle of the pack in most of their results.

Facing her former Wildcat teammates, Chewning earned a pair of fourth-place finishes in both the one-meter (265.55) and three-meter (258.70) competitions. After Lera made an error in the 3-meter competition, she bounced back nicely, earning a 264.05 score and a fifth-place result in the 1-meter.

"We had a mixed bag in the diving well," said Head Diving Coach Dave Parrington. "Mauricio was the epitome of consistency, looked strong and dove pretty well, but in an event where we had the defending NCAA champion in two events and an Olympic semifinalist for Indiana, he was extremely competitive.

"Sarah made a lot of really aggressive mistakes, which if you're going to make mistakes, those are the kind of mistakes to make. For where she's at, that's fairly typical having not competed much in the past 15-16 months. I was very pleased with her performance. Both Samantha and Sarah showed extremely good resolve bouncing back across the board."

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee swimming and diving opened up the home portion of the 2014-15 campaign with their annual double dual meet against SEC rival Kentucky and Big Ten powerhouse Indiana Halloween afternoon at the Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center.

Both teams used several downright frightening efforts to earn their first conference victory of the year--the men beating UK 234-64, while the women won 191-109--and their bouts with the Hoosiers came down to the final races of the night, with IU getting the better of UT 157-143 and 169-129 respectively.

"Each team is building an identity for this 2014-15 season," said Head Coach Matt Kredich. "Our men's team is really a team on a mission and it's fun to watch and coach them. We're a little bit younger as a team on the women's side, but you got to be a very, very strong cohesive unit to withstand the level of swimming of diving that we've run into so far."

Although No. 8 Indiana (3-2) swam away with a victory in the 400 Freestyle Relay to earn the victory, the No. 14 Vols (3-2, 1-0 SEC) scared a highly-talented Hoosier squad with some standout performances in the pool.

The highly-touted freshman class once again fueled the Vols, having a part in six UT victories on the afternoon. Peter John Stevens won the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 55.08, tying his career high set at North Carolina earlier in October. David Heron (15:24.13) set the fastest time in the country in the 1650 Freestyle, with teammate Evan Pinion (15:27.12) posting the third-fastest time, guiding the Vols' distance to a 1-2 finish in the event.

Meanwhile, Chattanooga native Sam McHugh added on to his monster start in his debut season as a Vol, winning three more races in pretty convincing style. McHugh started his afternoon by winning--and setting new career highs in--the 200-yard butterfly (1:46.72) and then followed that by taking the 500-yard freestyle (4:27.26), both events for the second time this season.

Capping off his night, McHugh and senior teammate Tristan Slater earned a huge 1-2 victory in the 400-yard individual medley. McHugh beat the rest of the field by a solid three seconds (3:52.60), helping to put the Vols up heading into the final race.

"The men are pretty fearless and they have some extraordinary freshman," said Kredich. "Usually first-year swimmers are unsure of what their roles going to be (and) of the team identity. The freshmen are really helping to set that identity. That group has really fit in well and has helped complement the rest of the team. Our leaders haven't had to draw the underclassmen along."

Tennessee's men also showed some grit in the relays. Starting off the meet, Tennessee's A (Sean Lehane, Stevens, Chris Sadsad, Troy Tillman) and B (Jimmy Dagley, Ross Dibblin, Ryan Coetzee and Gustav Aberg Ledjstrom) relay teams earned first and third place respectively in the 200 Medley Relay to put UT out in front early on.

Indiana clawed back into the meet with wins in several freestyle and diving events, but the Big Orange earned some crucial wins to stay competitive. UT's backstroking duo of Lehane (1:44.48) and Dagley (1:48.99) stepped up to place 1-2 in the 200-yard backstroke. Shortly after, Slater's win in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:01.71) set a season high and catapulted UT back into the dual meet with IU.

The No. 12 women's team (3-2, 1-0 SEC) gave Tennessee the best possible start by finishing 1-2 in the 200-yard Medley Relay. The `B' relay team of Amanda Carner, Molly Hannis, Anna DeMonte and Alex Cleveland clocked in a 1:40.90 time, just under a second ahead of the `A' relay team of Madison Hahn, Colleen Callahan, Harper Bruens and Faith Johnson (1:41.56).

Hannis and Callahan also earned valuable points in the 100 and 200-yard breaststroke. Hannis (1:00.57) swan a season-high to earn the victory, while Callahan (1:05.02) earned third place. Later on, in the 200-yard breaststroke, Hannis repeated her dominant efforts, winning her race with a time of 2:09.24, almost nine seconds faster than her nearest competition.

"Our women graduated such powerful leaders last year that I think the story of this team is going to be where that leadership is going to come from," said Kredich. "We have many pieces, but we don't have as clear of a sense of who the team really is yet. When you lose really powerful leadership, it takes a while for that to grow. I think that's what we're experiencing, but I see people really growing into those positions."

The Lady Vols also got some much needed points from their freestyle specialists. Besides serving as the anchors of the medley relay, Johnson and Cleveland imposed their will on the competition, sweeping the top two spots in the 50-yard freestyle (22.91 and 23.36 respectively). UT completed the sweep in the event when Cherelle Thompson tied Cleveland.

Johnson added onto her great individual afternoon by coming in second place in the 100-yard freestyle (49.93), just .07 seconds behind IU's Kennedy Goss. Teammate Harper Bruens earned a new season-high by finishing right behind Johnson in third place (50.99).

The Lady Vols came on strong towards the end of the IU dual meet. After Johnson and Bruens' performance, Madison Hahn (1:59.72) and Anna DeMonte (1:59.82) finished in second and third place in the 200-yard backstroke.

Tennessee will return to the Allan Jones Intercollegiate two weeks from Friday, when they host Louisville and Auburn in Knoxville at 3 p.m.