Kansas Splits Double Dual
LAWRENCE, Kan. – The Kansas swimming and diving team went 1-1 in double-dual action Saturday afternoon at the Arkansas Natatorium, beating Vanderbilt, 163-130, while falling to Arkansas 207-91.
This was the second meet of a three-week competition block for the Jayhawks, now 7-4 in dual meets this season. KU used the momentum from last week’s win over Arkansas-Little Rock to improve their record with a win over Vanderbilt this weekend.
“We were better than last week, which was what we were going for,” head coach Clark Campbell said. “I thought we were still up and down and not quite where we need to be, but that’s where we are at in our training process. Swimming is tough because you can have a good week of practice and show up at the meet and not have good performances.”
Senior Morgan Sharp led the Jayhawks with eight individual points when she placed second in both the 200- and 100-yard freestyle races. Sharp finished with a time of 1:52.04 in the 200 free and set a new in-season best time of 51.67 in the 100 free. She also swam the fastest leg of the second-place finishing 200-yard medley relay team (23.79).
“We had a good week of practice this past week and I thought we had a solid meet today,” Campbell said. “The best thing is to keep pushing and keep training for the conference championships. Our results will start to get better once we get further into the season. It’s about the cumulative training that we do.”
The Razorbacks swept the competition, with senior Nicole Menzel taking first in both the 200-yard butterfly and freestyle races with times of 1:51.21 and 2:05.74, respectively. She also took second in the 500-yard freestyle (4:57.05).
“The competition level was high today,” Campbell said. “Both Arkansas and Vanderbilt are strong teams and they both performed well today. It’s good because you can use the competition to help you go faster. We need teams to push us so that we can get ready for the tough competition we will have at the Big 12 Championships.”
Adding to their performances were sophomore Bryce Hinde and freshman Pia Pavlic. Hinde took second place in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:23.51, while Pavlic was strong in the 100-yard butterfly with a second place finishing (56.98).
Other top performers for Kansas include seniors Sofiia Filatova and junior Deanna Marks. Filatova finished third for Kansas in the 100-yard backstroke (56.99) and fourth in the 100-yard butterfly (57.47). Marks finished seventh in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:08.82 and eighth in the 100-yard butterfly (58.61).
