Arkansas Swimming and Diving Kicks Off Second Half of Season

GAINESVILLE, FLA. – The University of Arkansas swimming and diving team kicks off the second half of the season against No. 7 Florida this Saturday in Gainesville, Fla. The meet begins at 12 p.m. and Indian River Community College also swims in the 13-event competition.

With a 4-1 dual-meet record, the Lady Razorbacks are off to the best start the program has seen since the 2001-02 season. The squad has one automatic qualifying time for the NCAA Championships set by freshman Katie Kastes. In addition, five Lady’Backs (Stephanie Carr, Kastes, Erica Totten, Emily Gregory and Ashley Largo) earned 12 NCAA “B” cut times.

Arkansas boasts four Southeastern Conference weekly awards this season; there are six Lady’Backs (Kastes, Gregory, Largo, Carr, Jamie Marks and Madison Palmer) who hold top-five spots in the school records and freshman Erica Totten recently medaled three times in the Southeast Asian Games in Thailand.

After a great first-half of the season, the Lady’Backs fight to continue that success taking on its toughest competition before the SEC Championships in February. Arkansas faces the seventh ranked Gators this weekend, followed by No. 18 Missouri and No. 20 in mid-major rankings, Missouri State. Vanderbilt comes to Fayetteville for the Lady’Backs final home meet of the season before Arkansas goes on the road to swim against No. 2 Auburn and No. 20 Florida State.

Florida enters this weekend’s meet with a 5-1 overall record and a 1-1 SEC record. The Gators defeated Kentucky and fell to Georgia. Arkansas’ only loss was also to the Bulldogs. Florida leads the all-time series 2-0 with its last meet against Arkansas in 2006. The Lady’Backs fell to the Gators 42-91 tallying just two first-place finishes in the diving events.

The diving squad is also in competition this weekend at the Georgia Diving Invitational in Athens, Ga.

For more information about Arkansas swimming and diving, please log on to LADYBACKS.COM.