‘What a great moment’: UK program wins its first SEC championship

For the first time in program history, the third-ranked University of Kentucky women’s swimming and diving team won the Southeastern Conference Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships on Saturday in Athens, Ga.

The Wildcats broke five school records and compiled 12 podium finishes throughout the meet, collecting 1,124 points for their highest score in program history.

“This championship means a lot,” head coach Lars Jorgensen said. “We’ve been building this over a few years now, and it’s about the people in front of us that helped build our program. The alumni from years passed established it, our coaching staff, our administration. So many people had terrific effort this weekend, it was really fantastic. I couldn’t be more thrilled for our institution and for our girls. What a great moment.”

Kentucky earned three gold medals at the meet: Lauren Poole in the 400 individual medley (4:03.90), Riley Gaines in the 200 freestyle (1:42.70) and the 800 freestyle relay (6:58.58).

Silver medal winners included Gillian Davey in the 200 breaststroke (2:05.59) and 400 individual medley (4:05.96) and Sophie Sorenson in the 200 backstroke (1:50.94).

Taking bronze were Izzy Gati in the 100 fly (51.74); Caitlin Brooks in the 100 backstroke (51.63) and 200 backstroke (1:51.96); Kyndal Knight in platform diving (275.65) and the 200 medley relay (1:35.87) and 400 medley relay (3:30.44) squads.

The diving competition was held in Columbia, Mo.

Overall, the Cats finished well ahead of second-place Florida (1,071). Georgia (999), Alabama (973) and Tennessee (934) rounded out the top five, followed by Texas A&M (839), Missouri (614.5), Arkansas (595), Auburn (510), LSU (390.5), South Carolina (276) and Vanderbilt (154).

▪ In men’s diving, UK’s Danny Zhang earned his second podium finish of the meet, collecting a silver medal in the men’s platform event on a score of 403.20 on Saturday in Columbia, Mo. Chase Lane finished fifth (345.40).

Zhang won bronze in the 3-meter springboard (415.05) on Friday.

The men’s diving scores from this week will be combined with the men’s swimming scores at the 2021 SEC Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships on Tuesday-Friday in Columbia, Mo.

Softball

Kentucky picked up a pair of shutouts Sunday — 14-0 against N.C. Central and 10-0 over Mt. St. Mary’s — to remain undefeated.

Catcher and center fielder Kayla Kowalik reached base in all eight of her at-bats with two home runs, three singles and two walks to go along with reaching on an error for No. 12 UK in Buies Creek, N.C.

Kentucky, now 9-0 this season, is off to the best start in program history since 2014.

Rifle

Sophomore Mary Tucker scored a career-high and NCAA record tying 597 in smallbore Saturday when No. 2 Kentucky hosted an NCAA Qualifier with Morehead State at the Barker Hall Rifle Range. The Cats posted an overall team score of 4,731, earning a 2,350 in smallbore and 2,381 in air rifle.

Tucker finished the match with a 598 in air rifle for an aggregate of 1,195, which ties her school record for highest aggregate. She also posted a 1,195 earlier this season at the Kentucky Long Rifle Match. Of the nine NCAA smallbore scores of 594 or higher this season, Tucker owns four of them.

Saturday’s NCAA qualifying score is the last factor determining the field for the 2021 NCAA Rifle Championships. Each team’s three score aggregate average — the score based on each team’s highest three regular-season scores fired at three different locations — has already been recorded. This past weekend’s qualifier score will be added to that average. The teams with the eight highest combined scores will qualify for the NCAA Championship.

Entering the weekend, UK was second in the NCAA qualifying standings. The NCAA Championships will be March 12-13 inside Converse Hall in Columbus, Ohio. The Great American Rifle Conference Championships will be held Feb. 27-28.

Women’s tennis

Kentucky dropped its first match of the season on Saturday, losing 4-3 to No. 23 LSU at the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Center. The Wildcats are 8-1 and now 0-1 in the Southeastern Conference. UK’s Akvilė Paražinskaitė improved to 9-0 in singles with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 defeat of No. 41 Taylor Bridges.

This story was originally published February 21, 2021 at 2:53 PM.