The Indiana men’s and women’s swim and dive teams began their season Wednesday, defeating the University of Kentucky at the Lancaster Aquatic Center in Lexington.
With their win in the season opener, the men secured their 11th-consecutive victory against the Wildcats with a final score of 201 to 96. They were led by strong performances from sophomore Rafael Miroslaw and junior Tomer Frankel.
The men secured all three podium positions in the 200-medley relay and 100 back. They recorded top-2 finishes in the 200 free, 100 free, 200 breast and 100 fly. They also won the 400 free relay.
Senior Brendan Burns had a good showing as well, winning the 200 back by nearly 3 seconds and posting a B-cut time of 1:45.07 in the 200 fly.
The men’s divers also had a successful afternoon with sophomores Carson Tyler, Quinn Henninger, and junior Maxwell Weinrich all emerging as zone qualifiers in the one-meter and three-meter events.
[Related: Indiana swim and dive shifts focus toward the regular season after preseason preparations]
The women defeated the Wildcats 161 to 139. This is thanks in part to freshman freestyler and backstroker Anna Peplowski and sophomore freestyler Noelle Peplowski having good starts to their seasons. The tandem combined for four B-cuts, and both played crucial roles in the women’s relay success.
The women opened the meet winning the 200-medley relay, an event that saw the freshman trio of Kacey McKenna, Lily Hann and Kristina Paegle emerge victorious along with Noelle Peplowski. The women also won the 400-free relay, with Anna Peplowski swimming the first leg backed up by sophomore Ella Ristic, junior Ashley Turak and Paegle.
Paegle won the 100 free in her first meet for the Hoosiers, one of many first-place individual finishes for the women. They took three of the top four spots in the 1000 free, a first and second place finish in the 500 free and freshmen Mariah Denigan’s time of 4:16.44 in the 400-individual medley was good enough for the team’s sixth B-cut of the meet.
Class diver Anne Fowler also posted NCAA zone-qualifying scores along with Tyler, Henninger, and Weinrich with scores of 283.13 in the 1-meter and 302.78 in the 3-meter event.
The Hoosiers’ success on relays is an encouraging sign, as head swim coach Ray Looze said relay events are going to be a big focal point this season.
“Relays are an embodiment of the team,” Looze said. “I’m really going to be emphasizing performing at a high level on relays.”
Indiana’s next meet is one of the most highly-anticipated of the year — the Hoosiers will face off against the University of Texas and Texas A&M University on Oct. 21 in Austin, Texas.
