Arkansas Beats Vanderbilt, Little Rock in Final Dual Meet
The Arkansas women’s team finished off its dual meet slate Saturday with a trip to Nashville, Tenn., to face SEC rival Vanderbilt as well as Little Rock, and Razorback swimmers prevailed in every event but one on the schedule. Arkansas beat Vanderbilt 181-62 while topping Little Rock 198-45. Vanderbilt finished ahead of Little Rock 170.5 to 72.5.
Four Arkansas swimmers won two individual events each, all sweeping the 50 and 100-yard events of each stroke. Vanessa Herrmann won the 100 breaststroke in 1:01.99 before also taking first in the 50 breast (29.22) while Betsy Wizard won the 50 butterfly (25.12) and 100 fly (54.49). In backstroke, Andrea Sansores topped the 50 (25.52) and 100 (55.41), and sprint freestyle wins went to Bella Cothern in the 100 (50.77) and 50 (23.35).
A pair of unusual events were contested Saturday, the 300 IM and 300 free. In the medley race, Arkansas’ Luciana Thomas beat Vanderbilt’s Mercedes Traba by just nine hundredths, 3:16.11 to 3:16.20. Later on, Traba scored Vandy’s only win of the day when she touched in 2:54.78 in the 300 free.
Arkansas’ Alessia Ferraguti paced the 100 IM with her time of 56.97, and in relay action, the team of Sansores, Hermann, Cothern and Ferraguti swam a time of 1:42.84 for a comfortable win in the 200 medley relay. In the concluding 200 free relay, two Arkansas groups actually tied for the top spot at 1:36.63. Delaney Harrison, Elonora Camisa, Maddy Hartley and Hannah Hall swam for one squad while Claire Rumzie, Reilly Shaner, Allie Thome and Rebecca Simpson raced on the other.
