Jan. 21, 2012
Joe Howell’s Photos 
Vanderbilt vs. Marshall Results 
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Vanderbilt swim team picked up its first win on the season, defeating Marshall, 167-120, on Senior Day at the Centennial SportsPlex Tracy Caulkins Competition Pool.
The Commodores recorded their second-straight win over Marshall and now stand at 1-4 in dual meets on the year.
Vanderbilt honored its four seniors, Elizabeth Brunk, Zoe Cooper-Surma, Laura Dillon and Stephanie Falcone before the meet. Head Coach Jermey Organ even put the four swimmers together in the final event, the 200 yard freestyle relay, despite Cooper-Surma being the only freestyler.
“The girls have been working really hard and its good to see them finally come out with a win,” Organ said. “We’ve had some really close meets we’d like to have seen go our way, but it’s really good way to close out with our last meet at home, especially for our four seniors. The four girls really had good times all the way across the board, so we’re excited to see what the next few weeks bring.”
The meet opened in style with the foursome of Chrissy Oberg, Laura Dillon, Lauren Torres and Caroline Thomas securing a win in the 400 medley relay with a mark of 3:55.90. Vanderbilt went 1-2, with Chelsea Morey, Sarah Lynch, Brunk and Melissa Roberts placing second.
The 1000 yard freestyle saw Erika Deardorf cruise to a victory, posting a time of 10:25.42.
Vanderbilt then went 1-2-3 in the 100 yard backstroke, with Jess Eccher taking a win, edging teammate Morey by .15 seconds. Alexis Mayhall was just another .33 seconds behind Morey for third.
After Marshall took victories in the 100 breaststroke and 200 butterfly, Roberts picked up a victory in the 50 yard freestyle with a time of 25.21, besting Marshall’s Lauren Hurd by .03 seconds.
Thomas then picked up an individual win, posting a time of 53.08 to take the 100 yard freestyle. Roberts was right behind her for second with a time of 54.26.
The 200 backstroke saw another 1-2 finish, as Amy Salce picked up a win in 2:08.08, with Mayhall placing second in 2:09.44.
Deardorf picked up her second distance win of the day, posting a time of 5:05.72 to win the 500 freestyle.
Oberg then closed out the individual events with victories in the 100 butterfly (58.26) and 200 IM (2:10.00).
Vanderbilt took the 200 yard freestyle to seal the victory, but the highlight of that event was the senior relay.
“I did (swim the senior relay) and unfortunately I’m the only freestyler of the seniors, so there was a lot of pressure on me,” Cooper-Surma said.
Brunk echoed those sentiments, while acknowledging Cooper-Surma shouldered the load.
“None of use, except for Zoe, are freestylers, so we just went in and had fun with it,” said Brunk. “It was really nice just to be able to do that together.”
Falcone was focused on the memories they had, even before the meet.
“That was really exciting for us because we’ve really bonded together,” said Falcone.
Dillon wanted to remain focused on the remaining regular season meets and the SEC Championships.
“It’s definitely bittersweet but we still have two more meets and the SEC Championships, so we’re just really excited for that,” Dillon said.
Organ agreed that the focus now turns to a meet at South Carolina next weekend, which will also see the Commodores compete against East Carolina.
“South Carolina next week in a two-day format, is a little different, so that should be fun,” Organ said. “We should have some really good races there as well.”
