Nov. 18, 2016
HOUSTON, Texas. – The Vanderbilt swim team kicked off the Phill Hansel Invitational Friday night and find themselves in ninth place after the first day. The Commodores had a number of individual finals swims to go along with two relay races.
The highlight of day one was Kara Lucenti, Kayla Moran and Johanna Goldblatt as the trio swam in “A” finals Friday night. Lucenti swam in the 200-yard IM where she finished fourth with a season-best time of 2:02.31. Moran swam in the 50-yard freestyle and finished 7th with a time of 23.77. Goldblatt also swam in the 50-yard freestyle and she finished just behind Moran in 8th with a time of 24.12. Moran and Goldblatt both set season-best times for the 50-yard freestyle in the prelims.
The Commodores had very good relays swims in the 200-freestyle relay to begin the finals swims Friday night. The Vanderbilt A relay team of Kayla Moran, Madeline Hunt, Breanna Sapienza, and Johanna Goldblatt was the best of the three relay teams. They finished in sixth place with a time of 1:34.05.
Vanderbilt had two swimmers in the first finals swim of the night, the 500-yard freestyle. Carrie Bencic and Sophie Halper swam in the “C” final and finished 22nd (4:59.51) and 24th (5:02.57) respectively. Halper’s time of 5:00.30 in the prelims was a personal best in the 500-yard freestyle.
Freshmen Namilla Sanchez and Selah Peacock both won their finals heats in the 500-yard freestyle. Sanchez won the “D” final with a season-best time of 4:56.42. Peacock won the “E” final also with a season-best time of 4:58.02.
Three Commodores competed along with Lucenti in the 200-yard IM finals. Paige Hamilton, Rachel Koch, and Alexandra Blankenburg swam in the “E” final. Hamilton finished in 35th (2:07.02), Koch 36th (2:07.58) and Blankenburg 38th (2:08.51). Hamilton and Koch both swam season-best times in the finals while Blankenburg swam a season-best time in the prelims.
The ‘Dores had four other swimmers along with Moran and Goldblatt in the 50-yard freestyle finals. Breanna Sapienza competed in the “B” final and finished 16th (23.87). Madeline Hunt swam in the “C” final and finished 21st (24.02). Kathryn Coughlin raced in the “D” final and earned a 30th place finish with a time of 24.30. Finally, Paige Hamilton rounded out the Commodores in the “E” final and she finished 36th (23.94). All four swimmers set season-best times in either the prelims or finals of the 50-yard freestyle.
Day two of the Phill Hansel Invitational will begin tomorrow morning at 10 am with prelim swims and the final swims will take place at 6 pm. The order of events for day two will be 200 Medley Relay, 400 IM, 100 Butterfly, 200 Freestyle, 100 Breaststroke, 100 Backstroke, 3-Meter Dive and 800 Freestyle Relay.
