Nov. 6, 2009
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Vanderbilt swimming team swam to 18 season high marks but it wasn’t enough to hold off a strong Arkansas team as the Razorbacks defeated the Commodores, 206-87 at the Arkansas Natatorium in Fayetteville Friday.
Nearly every Vanderbilt swimmer that competed Friday swam their best time of the season as VU was once again displayed a total team effort in the loss.
“Today’s meet was a good meet for us as an overall team,” Head Coach Jeremy Organ said. “Everyone raced well and we saw some great swims throughout the meet, especially Amy Salce and Chelsea Morey. Amy had great races in the 200 free and 500 free, while Chelsea looked good in the 100 and 200 back.”
The ‘Dores started the meet with the 200-yard medley relay team of Morey, Sarah Lynch, Jess Eccher and Jennifer Molchan clocking a team-high time of 1:50.39, for third place.
Two events later, Salce shattered her previous 200 freestyle season-high mark with a 1:54.75, good for third place in the eight-swimmer event. Salce’s time of 1:54.75 was nearly three seconds faster than her previous personal best this season.
One event later, Morey and fellow freshman Rose Cornelson finished first and third in the 100-yard backstroke with season-high times of 59.00 and 1:00.66, respectively. Morey’s 100-back time was the fastest time clocked by a Commodore in over two seasons. The Hutchinson, Kan., native also made a big splash in the 200-yard backstroke with a runner time of 2:08.47. Morey’s 200-back time was nearly four seconds quicker than her previous season high (2:12.13).
Vanderbilt added seven more points to its team total when Morey and Cornelson went second and third in the 200-backstroke race. Like Morey, Cornelson also swam a season-best time in the 200 back (2:11.71).
In the fifth event of the day, Lynch tacked on nine more points for the Commodores when she notched a season-best 1:07.64 to capture first place honors in the 100-yard breaststroke. Sophomores Allie Voss, Elizabeth Brunk and senior Jessica Cohen finished in fourth, fifth and seventh in the same event.
Molchan once again led the VU fleet in the 50-yard freestyle, as her time of 25.23 was good for second place. Zoe Cooper-Surma, Anna Fargo finished in the top-five of the 50 free while Galenti finished one spot back of Fargo in sixth. Two events later, Molchan and Lynch finished in third and fourth place in the 100-yard freestyle. Molchan shaved three-tenths of a second off her previous season and team-high mark with a 54.95 Friday.
The Commodores added seven more points to its total when Dillon and Voss went second and third in the stacked 200-yard breaststroke heat. Dillon, already the school-record holder in the event, took nearly a full second off her previous season high time on Friday, finishing with a 2:23.62 while Voss clocked a season high 2:28.35.
The freshman duo of Erika Deardorf and Amy Salce made huge strides in the 500-yard freestyle Friday with both of them swimming to season best marks. Deardorf’s runner-up time of 5:05.26 marked a new personal best while Salce trimmed over five seconds off her previous season high to finish with a 5:07.97.
The freshman pair of Eccher and Lynch led the Commodores in the 100-yard butterfly with a pair of top-five times while Brunk and Stephanie Falcone finished in sixth and eighth, respectively.
Click the Complete Results link at the top of the recap to see the full results of the meet.
The Commodores will return to the pool in two weeks when they make the hour trip to Bowling Green, Ky., for the Hilltopper Invitational Nov. 20-22.
