The Tennessee swimming and diving team made a splash at its home opener Thursday with two ranked wins, after being on the road for its first two meets of the season.
The No. 7 Lady Vols defeated the No. 13 Cardinals 176-107, and the No. 17 men’s team picked up a big win of its own, defeating the No. 7 Cardinals in a close 158-142 meet, its first top-10 win of the season.
“Today’s meet was a good foundational win for us in terms of what is to come,” associate head coach Rich Murphy said. “We took our lumps at NC State, and I think we really came out sharper today as a result.”
UT honored numerous Olympians past and present during their Olympic Tradition Ceremony at the meet. Among those, a banner was raised for Olympian Erika Brown’s top times in the 100 and 200 freestyles from the 2020 season. Erika received a silver in the 400 medley relay and a bronze for freestyle relay at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Another Olympian honored was current Lady Vol Mona McSharry, who won two individual events and a relay. Mona is also the raining SEC Swimmer of the Week. McSharry competed for Ireland in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and became the first Irish swimmer to compete in the finals.
McSharry believed her time at Tennessee helped prepare her for the pressure of a stage like the Olympics.
“It prepared me to enjoy myself a little more, I’ve always been very much in my head,” McSharry said. “I think coming here and getting to cheer on the sidelines and live through other people’s races and not just my own has made me relax a little more, and really take in the experience.”
The Lady Vols had a strong 500 freestyle race, posting the top-4 times in the event. Julia Mrozinski took home first place in the event. Mrozinski, the reigning SEC Freshman of the Week, also finished first in the 200 freestyle and the 400-yard freestyle relay.
“Coming out of the first event, Louisville was the NCAA champion in the 200 medley relay last year, so to get that win at the start of the meet was really significant and gave our guys a lot of confidence,” Murphy said. “Then, Rafael (Ponce de Leon Castilla) backed it up with a win in the 1000 free, and it gave our guys a lot of trust that we were prepared and ready to go today.”
The Vols secured the top three spots in a close men’s 100 breaststroke, their best event of the day. Michael Houlie took first with a meet-record time of 52.53. Not far behind him was Jarel Dillard, with a 52.93 and Lyubomir Epitropov with a 54.05 finish. Houlie represented Team South Africa in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
“It was a full team effort,” Murphy said. “There were outstanding swims across the board, highlighted by Houlie in the 100 breaststroke, Lyubomir (Epitropov) in the 200 breaststroke and Kayky (Mota) in the 100 fly. Those are guys that have NCAA-level experience, we rely on them for confidence and demonstration of racing effort so our younger guys can really borrow and learn from what our older guys doing.”
“When you are competing really well, it has a contagious effect on the team and so we benefitted from that quite a bit today.”
Looking forward, the Vols will travel to Lexington, Kentucky, for a matchup with the Wildcats Nov. 5.
