Oct. 16, 2015
San Diego, Calif. – The Vanderbilt swim team wrapped up their fall break in California with a competitive showing against the University of San Diego Toreros, but falling in a close 127-104 loss.
“It was a great experience racing today for us,” said head coach Jeremy Organ. “We used a different lineup to allow us coaches to see swimmers in some different events. Racing outside is something we don’t get to do often, so it was a learning experience for us.”
The Commodores started the meet off on the right note, taking the 400 Medley Relay. Johanna Goldblatt, Kathryn Coughlin, Breanna Sapienza and Kayla Moran earned the squad valuable points swimming in at a time of 3:52.904.
VU’s competitive swimming continued on into individual races, landing podium finishes in all but one event. While Vandy couldn’t secure first place in an individual events, the Dores were jumpstarted by Carrie Bencic and Summer Brown took second and third place in the 1000 free, swimming at a 10:34.14 and 10:36.29 respectively.
The ‘Dores swam to back-to-back second place finishes in the 200 and50 freestyles. Hannah Martin, the current 200 free record holder, continued her success in the event at a time of 1:56.80. Brenda Cha, followed Martin’s performance, tying Oregon State’s McLaggan with a 24.85 in the 50.
After Alex Blankenburg’s bronze finish in the 400 IM (4:37.60), VU nabbed second and third again, this time with sophomore Sapienza (2:06.69) and junior Moran (2:07.61) in the 200 fly.
Vandy rounded off individual races with two additional second place finishes by Brown and Martin in the 100 free (53.29) and 200 back (2:08.65). And finished the meet the way they started, swimming a 3:33.51 for first place in the 400 freestyle relay.
On Oct. 24th the Dores head back out in enemy waters, taking on the Tulane Green Wave at 11:00 am CT.
