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Senior Eric Bruck to Represent UK at USA Winter Nationals
LEXINGTON, Ky. –
University of Kentucky swimmer and Lexington native Eric Bruck will
compete at the 2013 AT&T Winter National Championships Thursday in
Knoxville, Tenn. The senior will race in the men’s 50 yard freestyle
competition.
“This is a great opportunity for Eric,” UK head
coach Lars Jorgensen said. “He’s a world class athlete, who needs to
get more racing in. After sitting out last year, I think racing in the
50 free at USA Nationals is going to give him the opportunity to
compete against some of the best in the country.”
At the USA
Swimming event, Bruck will join 71 other athletes in nine heats of the
50 freestyle. Competition is scheduled to commence at 9 a.m. ET, with
Bruck’s prelim to begin at approximately 11:09 a.m. Finals for the
eight events on Thursday will begin at 5 p.m. The National
Championships will continue Friday and Saturday.
Live results
from Knoxville, Tenn., can be found at USAswimming.org. Additional
information is available in USA Swimming’s Meet Notes, in addition to
the prelims schedule and psych sheet
LAST TIME OUT: AT OHIO STATE INVITATIONAL
UK
competed at the Ohio State Invitational Nov. 22-24. The five-team field
featured three squads ranked in the top 15 in both the men’s and
women’s rankings. In the final team totals, the UK women registered 418
points over the three days, behind No. 3 Florida, No. 5 Virginia, No.
14 Ohio State and Purdue. The Wildcat men racked up 476 points and were
defeated by No. 11 Ohio State, No. 1 Florida and No. 10 Virginia. The
UF women had 1,099 points, while the OSU men accumulated 1,137.
UK
junior Christina Bechtel set two school record times, with a 1:54.21 to
win the 200 yard butterfly and a 51.36 for a second-place finish in the
100 yard butterfly. Bechtel also placed second in the 400 medley relay
along with four more top-11 finishes.
Junior diver Christa
Cabot won the platform event with a score of 283.50. She finished in
the top five in both the 1- and 3-meter springboard events. Junior Abby
Myers placed second in the 200 yard butterfly in 1:56.59, just behind
Bechtel, while Eric Bruck recorded a third-place finish in the 50 yard
freestyle with a time of 20.00.
UP NEXT: USA DIVING WINTER NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
Select
UK divers will compete at the USA Diving Winter National Championships
Dec. 17-22 in Austin, Texas. Kentucky will also compete at the Georgia
Diving Invitational Jan. 3-5 in Athens, Ga.
The spring season officially resumes when UK travels to Tuscaloosa, Ala., to race SEC-foes Alabama and Arkansas on Jan. 11.
SEC HONORS BECHTEL, FERRUCCI AND FLYNN
The
Wildcats have been honored with four Southeastern Conference Athlete of
the Week honors this season. Freshman Brandon Flynn was named the
Freshman of the Week on Oct. 29, while junior swimmer Christina Bechtel
and senior diver Greg Ferrucci were honored with the season's first
Athlete the Week awards on Oct. 15. Bechtel was honored again on Nov.
27 with Swimmer of the Week accolades.
Bechtel broke two school
records, set two meet records and recorded three NCAA ‘A’ or ‘B’
qualifying times in seven events Nov. 22-24 at the Ohio State
Invitational to earn her second SEC honor. Competing against four
teams, three of them ranked in the top 14 nationally, Bechtel posted
career best times in all individual events.
Flynn was named
the SEC’s Male Freshman Swimmer of the Week for the first time in his
career after he won all four events he competed in against Missouri and
Southern Illinois over two days. Flynn recorded his first collegiate
win in the men’s 400 individual medley, and, eight events later, he
returned to the water to win the men’s 500 freestyle. The next day,
Flynn won the 1,000 yard freestyle in 9:21.94 before leading the way as
the UK men finished one-two-three in the 500 yard freestyle.
Ferrucci,
who has won all four diving events to open the year, was named the
SEC's Male Diver of the Week for the eighth time in his career.
Ferrucci recorded wins in all four competitions to start the season. At
Georgia on Sept. 25, he notched victories in the 1- and 3-meter dives,
while the senior swept the diving events again at home against Ohio
State on Oct. 11.
Bechtel earned her first career SEC Female
Swimmer of the Week honor after a two-win performance Oct. 11 against
Ohio State. On the strengths of two wins in the butterfly against Ohio
State, Bechtel was ranked second nationally in the 100-yard butterfly
after she finished first with a time of 54.34. Bechtel, an NCAA
qualifier last year, also posted a win in the 200-yard butterfly
against the Buckeyes.
THE JORGENSEN FILE
Lars Jorgensen is in
his first season as head coach at Kentucky after serving as an
associate head coach for the Wildcats last season. A 1988 Olympian and
standout student-athlete at the University of Tennessee, Jorgensen
served as interim head coach for his alma mater in 2011-12. He also
spent time on the coaching staffs at Toledo and LSU.
As a
student-athlete at UT, Jorgensen holds the school record in the 1,000
freestyle, set in 1992. He earned a silver medal at the 1993 SEC
Championships in the 1,650 freestyle and helped the Volunteers to a
third-place finish.
At the 1988 Summer Olympic Games in Seoul,
Jorgensen placed ninth in the 1,500-meter freestyle. His brother Daniel
also competed in 1988, making them the second pair of brothers to
participate in an Olympics. Daniel returned to the Olympics in 1992 and
won a bronze medal as part of the 800 freestyle team, while their
father, Niels, was an Olympic wrestler for Denmark.
RETURNING STARPOWER
UK
returns all four student-athletes that competed at the 2013 Men’s and
Women’s NCAA Championships. Senior diver Greg Ferrucci is coming off
fourth-place finishes in all three NCAA events and became the first
diver to earn First-Team All-America honors in one season on the 1
meter, 3 meter and platform. Senior John Fox and juniors Christina
Bechtel and Christa Cabot made their first NCAA appearance in 2013.
2013-14 CAPTAINS ANNOUNCED
Seniors
John Fox and Maclin Simpson and junior Michael Christian were named
captains of the UK men’s team, while juniors Christina Bechtel, Christa
Cabot and Lindsay Hill were announced as captains of the women’s squad.
A LOOK AT THE 2013-14 SCHEDULE
The
2013-14 campaign features dual or tri meets with five SEC foes and two
home competitions. In addition to Oct. 11's home opener against Ohio
State, the Wildcats welcome Cincinnati to Lexington on Feb. 1 at noon
at the Lancaster Aquatics Center on the UK campus.
The 2014 SEC
Championships will be held Feb. 18-22 in Athens, Ga. The NCAA Women’s
Championship will be in Minneapolis, Minn., March 20-23, while the
men’s national championship will be March 27-30 in Austin, Texas.
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