University of Tennessee Athletics
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UT Women Swim Past Florida in Dual Finale
January 28, 2017 | Swimming & Diving
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The Tennessee women's swimming and diving team defeated Florida in a road dual meet for the first time in program history Saturday at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center Natatorium.
The meet came down to the final event, where Kira Toussaint, Madeline Banic, Erika Brown and Micah Bohon touched the wall first for a victory in the 400-yard freestyle relay and a 151-149 team win.
Freshman Meghan Small won three individual events -- the 200-yard freestyle, the 500 freestyle and the 200 IM -- to lead Tennessee. Toussaint won the 100 backstroke and 200 backstroke, while Banic won the 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly.
The UT men won five events in a 183-117 loss to Florida. Junior Liam Stone swept both springboard events for a fifth time this season, scoring above 400 points on both 1-meter and 3-meter.
Florida led going into the final 400 freestyle relay with Tennessee needing a victory to win the meet. Swimming the third leg, Brown distanced herself from Florida swimmers for good and Bohon retain the lead as Tennessee finished in 3:19.64, well ahead of the Gators' 3:21.25.
INSIDE THE WOMEN'S MEET: Tennessee won 11 of 16 events, highlighted by multi-win days by Meghan Small, Kira Toussaint and Madeline Banic.
Small won the 200 freestyle in 1:47.25, the 500 freestyle in 4:48.36 and the 200 IM in 1:59.06. It was her season-best in the 200 freestyle and her first collegiate 500 freestyle race.
Toussaint put together her third two-win meet of the season, taking first in the 100 backstroke (53.62) and the 200 backstroke (1:56.82).
Banic led a 1-2 Tennessee finish in the 50 freestyle, winning in 23.00 and followed closely by junior Alex Cleveland in 23.29. Banic also won the 100 butterfly by nearly two seconds (53.11)
Other individual winners included Erika Brown in the 100 freestyle (49.84) and Meg Wiggins in the 100 breaststroke (1:03.62).
In addition to winning the 400 freestyle relay, Tennessee also led off the meet with a victory in the 200 medley relay (1:39.21).
In diving, Rachel Rubadue picked up a pair of second-place finishes on 1-meter (301.87) and 3-meter (312.90). Emily Pelletier recorded a career-best 298.12 on platform.
INSIDE THE MEN'S MEET: Junior Liam Stone led the Vols with one of his best all-around diving performances in a dual meet. He recorded over 400 in both events in one meet for the first time in his career. He won the 1-meter with a score of 402.67 and the 3-meter with a score of 417.90.
The Vols also had a standout day in the men's distance events. Redshirt junior David Heron won the 1,000 freestyle in a season-best 9:00.64. Later in the meet, freshman Marc Hinawi won his first collegiate race, taking first in the 500 freestyle in 4:23.04.
Junior Peter John Stevens won the 100 breaststroke in 53.72.
Comments from Head Coach Matt Kredich: "It definitely feels good to come from behind to win on the road. It showed a lot of character for us to win. Erika Brown had a great meet. It was a really good example of what we wanted our team to display. She had a 200 free that she wasn't happy with but she won the 100 free convincingly and going third on the relay she had an outstanding split. That's where the real separation happened. Micah Bohon has a great last relay leg.
"Just looking at the results and the final score, any single race that turned the other way. We won a lot of close races and we also had great performances from Kira, Maddy and Meghan. It was Meghan's idea to swim the 500 free and it turned out to be critical for us. It was one of our best ever in a dual meet. Meg Wiggins won a close 100 breast and that was huge for her. We had a lot of that across the pool, including on the men's side. it's a place that has a distinct home advantage and we carried our own atmosphere into the pool. We weren't bothered by a hostile crowd.
"We had another great performance by David Heron in the 1000. His finish was spectacular. Marc Hinawi had a breakout meet and should give him confidence in SECs. His 1000 was good and his 500 was exceptional. Sam McHugh has been sick the last few days and competed with a lot of grit. He did a great job competing for us today. Florida's a deeper team than we are but we saw some great races today."
Comments from Diving Coach Dave Parrington: "Liam Stone had a fantastic day, breaking 400 on both boards for the first time in a dual meet, especially in a hostile environment. I was really pleased. He got up and competed well with some big dives and was victorious pretty handedly. Michael and Nick had good days as well.
On the women's side, Rachel had a couple good seconds and Emily had a career-high on the 3-meter, which was good to see. Overall, we came out of here with many positives that sets us up well to compete on our home boards. Being a part of our first ever women's victory at the Swamp was very exciting."
