Arkansas fifth after two days of competition

COLUMBUS, OHIO – The University of Arkansas swimming and diving team turned in solid performances through two days of competition at the Ohio State Invitational. The Lady Razorbacks sit in fifth place with 256.5 points. South Carolina leads all teams with 554 points, followed by Ohio State with 526, Utah with 476 and Iowa with 284. On Friday, Arkansas’ top finish came in the 200 freestyle relay. The team of sophomore Summer Jackson, junior Emily Gregory, senior Kristen Thibodeaux, and junior Tifanie Silver placed fourth with a time of 1:36.31. Senior Mariann Fulop touched in sixth in the 200 individual medley in 2:05.58, just .05 seconds off of her career best. Sophomore Elizabeth Engs posted a season-best time of 2:10.15, good enough for 16th. After turning in a personal best 5:04.09 in the preliminaries of the 500 free Thibodeaux finished 14th in the finals. In the prelims of the same event sophomore Emily Fletcher earned a 5:15.00, almost four seconds faster than her best time this season. In the 50 free, Jackson touched in at 24.08, taking seventh place, while Gregory claimed 11th with a 24.16. In the prelims of the 50 free, Silver set a personal record with a time of 24.58 while sophomore Dashya Kimmel and freshman Allison Chinn posted season-best and personal-best times, respectively. Arkansas earned another chunk of its points in the 400 medley relay with the squad of Fulop, junior Katie McGraw, Gregory, and Jackson which finished sixth in a season-best time of 3:53.59. On the three-meter springboard, sophomore Madison Palmer placed 11th with 247.65, followed by junior Brieanne Kushner with 242.10. The Lady’Backs were in fourth place after day one behind South Carolina, Ohio State and Utah. Today, the Lady’Backs had successful preliminaries in the morning, qualifying everyone to compete in the evening session. “We had a real good morning,” said head coach Jeff Poppell. “The fact that we had everyone swimming again in the finals was huge. We also had a great night with a lot of great performances. They swam really well today.” The top 24 performers in the prelims qualify for the finals. In the finals of the 200 medley relay, Arkansas took third place with a season-best 1:45.20 from team members Fulop, Jackson, Gregory and Thibodeaux. Fulop finished third in the 400 IM, posting a personal-best time of 4:27.57. Also setting personal bests in the event were sophomore Elizabeth Engs and Fletcher. Gregory took top honors in the prelims of the 100 fly with a 55.67, writing her name in the Arkansas record book once again this season. She now holds the first, third, fourth and fifth spots in the 100 fly. Gregory took third in the finals of the event, while Jackson touched in fifth. Jackson finished fourth in the 100 breaststroke with a personal best 1:04.97, while Fulop finished fifth in the 100 back with a 57.59. Silver posted a career-best time of 59.76 in the prelims of the 100 back. The Lady’Backs had two unfortunate disqualifications on the day. “We had two DQs and it was the one in the last relay that knocked us to fifth in the overall standings,” said Poppell. The DQ came in the 800 free relay, the last event of the night. Arkansas completes its third and final day at the Ohio State Invitational tomorrow. For more information about Arkansas swimming and diving, log on to LADYBACKS.COM.