Arkansas Notches Two Dual Meet Victories

Day Two Results

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Arkansas swimming and diving team (4-4, 1-3 SEC) picked up where it left off yesterday, winning the first two events on Saturday to coast to two dual-meet victories. Arkansas defeated Vanderbilt in swimming 193-119, marking the first conference win of the season. The Razorbacks also knocked off Houston 258-169 (199-113 in swimming, 59-56 in the diving), which took place at Clemson.

However, Arkansas fell to Clemson in diving earlier in the day in an exhibition diving competition, 93-59, as the Tigers did not participate in swimming events.

With a win over Houston, Arkansas has won 25 straight non-conference dual meets.

In the only diving event of day two at Clemson, Nicole Gillis dove a career-best 330.70 on the 3m springboard to notch another NCAA Zone qualifying score. Her performance goes down as the fourth best in school history. Gillis finished in the top two of all three diving events this weekend and now owns the top four dives in the 3m this season by Arkansas.

As a team, the Razorbacks won four swimming events on Saturday, making it 11 total on the weekend.

“I am very happy with the team’s response and effort today,” said head coach Neil Harper. “We started the meet with a medley relay win once again. They came to race and were determined to set the tone early.”

Arkansas started the day winning its third relay event of the meet. Touching first in the 200 medley relay in a time of 1:43.84 was Natalie Burnett, Madison Strathman, Olivia Weekley and Erin Kelly. Weekley and Kelly were each a part of both relay victories a day ago.

Chelsea Tatlow continued to dominate. A day after recording three victories, Tatlow won the 200 backstroke in a time of 2:01.22 to pick up her fourth win of the meet.

Arkansas swept the podium in two events. In the 400 IM, Jessie Garrison took first (4:23.65) while Mary Margaret Soderberg (4:26.60) and Ayumi Macias (4:27.44) rounded out the top three, respectively. Aiden Lister (4:55.36), Macias (4:57.22) and Jessie Garrison (5:00.78) claimed the top three spots in the 500 freestyle.

In the 100 freestyle, Annah Carney clocked a 52.31 to finish third in the event.

Tatlow, Kelly, Carney and Michailoff-Russell notched the fastest time by Arkansas this season in the 400 freestyle relay in an exhibition time of 3:28.15.

“Jessie Garrison, Chelsea Tatlow, Madison Strathman and Aiden Lister all stepped up,” coach Harper mentioned. “It was nice to sweep the 400 IM and 500 freestyle but we still have a couple more weeks of hard work and fine tuning before we focus on our preparations for the SEC Championships. I am excited about Senior Day next week against Kansas.”

UP NEXT
Arkansas will return to the pool next weekend as the Razorbacks host the Kansas Jayhawks on Saturday, Jan. 28 for Senior Day at the Arkansas Natatorium at 10 a.m.

For more information on Arkansas Swimming and Diving, follow @RazorbackSD on Twitter.