Trio leads Arkansas over Vanderbilt

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Arkansas sophomores Katie Whitbeck, Lisa Lunkenheimer and Katie Davis each won two events Friday to lead the Razorback swimming and diving team over Vanderbilt at Arkansas Natatorium. 

Fourteen event wins carried the Hogs to a 206-87 defeat of the Commodores, giving Arkansas its second Southeastern Conference victory.

“Overall I was very pleased with the meet today,” Arkansas coach Jeff Poppell said. “It was a fun meet for us as we actually held out five of our better swimmers who have had a lot of experience, including our All-Americans from last year, just to give some other kids an opportunity to compete who haven’t competed yet this season.

“In addition, a lot of the girls that did compete today and had competed in earlier meets this season, we gave them the chance to swim some different events, which I think was important. We are still trying to figure out a third event for some of these kids for the conference championship meet. Getting the opportunity to swim some different events today gave us the chance to see where our versatility is and just really where we are at this point in the season.”

Whitbeck took first place in the 200-yard butterfly, touching in at 2 minutes, 2.93 seconds, and the 500y freestyle with a time of 5:03.02, while Lunkenheimer won the 200y freestyle event in 1:54.25 and earned her second victory of the day in the 200y individual medley with a time of 2:08.42.

Davis won both the 50y and 100y freestyle events, turning in times of 24.90 and 53.57, respectively.

“Three of the highlights had to be Whitbeck, Lunkenheimer and Davis,” Poppell said. “Each of the three had two wins today and they turned in really solid swims for those events. And those events aren’t ones they normally swim, probably off events for them.

“But they raced extremely hard and did some things right that they had trouble with in the first couple of meets. I was really pleased with those three and thought they did a fantastic job today which was evident by them winning.”

Freshmen Chelsea Franklin and Dannica Brennan added wins for the Razorbacks in the 1,000y freestyle and the 200y backstroke, respectively. Franklin touched in a 10:15.82 to take the meet’s longest event while Brennan turned in a time of 2:05.28 to earn a victory in her collegiate debut.

Arkansas started and ended the meet strong, sweeping both the 200y medley relay and the 200y freestyle relay.

Junior Erin Neuman turned in the top time in the 200y breaststroke at 2:22.69 and sophomore Jillienne Schilling finished first in the 100y butterfly with a time of 58.36.

In diving, Liana Bugslag took first place in both one-meter and three-meter diving. The sophomore scored 274.65 on the one-meter boards followed by a 269.18 in the three-meter event.