Jan. 30, 2010
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Less than 18 hours after winning its biggest dual meet of the year, the Vanderbilt swimming team was faced with a difficult task of swimming against Cincinnati and Kentucky at the Lancaster Aquatic Center on Saturday. The Commodores posted 15 top-five finishes on Saturday despite losing to Cincinnati (166-105) and Kentucky (175-80).
Sophomore Laura Dillon paced the Commodores (2-7) with a first place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke while the freshmen trio of Jess Eccher, Erika Deardorf and Ellen Kilgore swam season best performances in the 400-yard individual medley.
“We were a little flat today, but we had some good swims and the girls competed hard,” head coach Jeremy Organ said. “Amy Salce had some good races today and she is becoming a very consistent performer for us. It was nice to see Laura Dillon win the 200 breaststroke again.”
Dillon won the 200-breaststroke by over two seconds as she clocked a time of 2:23.05. It marked the third time this season that Dillon has won the 200 breast. Later in the meet, Dillon swam to a third-place time of 2:08.66, to lead VU in the 200-yard butterfly.
Salce led the ‘Dores in the 200-yard freestyle, nearly setting a new season best with a time of 1:54.44, to place second out of 11 swimmers.
Chelsea Morey was once again VU’s top place winner in the 100-yard backstroke with a fourth-place time of 59.41. Eccher and Cornelson finished in fifth and sixth-place with times of 59.57 and 59.88, respectively.
Sarah Lynch was Vanderbilt’s top finisher in the 100-yard breaststroke, clocking a 1:08.62, to place in the top-five.
Sophomores Anna Fargo and Zoe Cooper-Surma led the Commodores in the 50 and 100-yard freestyle with a pair of top-10 finishes in both events.
Salce and Deardorf finished in second and third place out of 10 swimmers in the 500-yard freestyle event. Salce clocked a 5:05.81 while Deardorf finished three seconds back with a 5:08.68.
In the second to last event of the meet, the trio of Eccher, Deardorf and Kilgore all shattered their previous best times in the 400-yard IM. Eccher led the way with a second-place and time of 4:37.45 while Deardorf finished one spot back in third with a 4:37.65. Kilgore trimmed nearly 16 seconds off her previous season-high in the 400 IM to come in sixth.
The VU swimming team will return to the pool next weekend when they travel to New Orleans next Saturday (Feb. 6) for their final regular season dual-meet with Tulane. The meet with the Green Wave will start at 10 a.m. CT.
For complete results of Saturday’s three-team dual meet with Kentucky, Cincinnati and Vanderbilt, click the “complete results” link at the top of the page.
