Jan. 10, 2015
NASHVILLE, Tenn. –
Vanderbilt Swimming capped off its final home meet by honoring its senior class, a class whose member’s own or helped set a combined 11 established records. The Commodores fell to the Arkansas Razorbacks, 152-103.
“We saw some things that we liked, and I think we’re really in a good place”, said head coach Jeremy Organ. “With two weeks until our next competition I think we can work on some little things like on our starts and turns. But overall we like where we’re at just getting ready and preparing for SECs.”
The Commodores kicked-off the meet with two 200-yd IM relay teams placing second and third, (1:46.47) and (1:48.04) respectively. Vandy’s success continued as sophomore Kathryn Babbin clinched third place in the longest race of the day, the 1000-yd freestyle with a time of 10:20.73.
In one of the closest and most exciting races of the day, sophomore Rachel Koch was just edged out of first place by .08 of a second, recording a time of 2:04.11 in the 200-yd butterfly.
Later in the 12th event of the meet, Breanna Sapienza brought in an addition first place finish for the Commodores in the 100-yd butterfly (55.47). The freshman owns the Vanderbilt record in this event, which was established last semester with a time of 54.34.
Kara Lucenti added another notable swim for the Commodores, with a second place finish in the 200 IM (2:06.94).
But it was the last event of the afternoon that was the most memorable. Not only did the Commodores secure second (1:36.26) and third place (1:38.43) finishes in the 200 freestyle relay, but the senior class took one last home swim together as a four-man relay team.
“The seniors are a great bunch, but you know it’s always fun to see them enjoying themselves, and to have a little fun in their last home swim meet is always good.”
The senior’s last race was in everyway freestyle with belly flops, interesting swimming techniques, and Caroline Thomas as an added fifth swimmer to the quartet. Elly Faulkner and Chrissy Oberg both agreed it was not their many record-setting swims that they will remember, but that last fun swim in the pool as teammates.
“I think the idea was brought up and then we all came together to find a common way to be tricky for our last race”, said Faulkner. “I think it will be my most memorable race; just having fun out there with my teammates.”
The Commodores travel to Columbia, S.C., January 23rd for a quad-meet between the South Carolina, Queens, and Wingate.
