ROBLES SCORES HISTORIC DEBUT IN PLATFORM
VOLS FINISH THIRD IN TENNESSEE INVITATIONAL
Freshman Mauricio Robles’ collegiate debut in platform diving Friday was nothing short of historic. Robles
became the second Vol ever to score more than 400 points in the
platform diving event, winning the contest with a 404.00 total as the
Vols finished third of five schools in the team standings in the
Tennessee Invitational. Tennessee (3-1, 2-0 SEC) ended
with 822.5 points behind Louisville’s leading 1,038 and LSU’s 914.
Kentucky (543.5) and Southern Illinois (280) followed Tennessee in
fourth and fifth. “Overall, it was a good team
performance,” Tennessee head coach John Trembley said. “You have to
pick your fights in swimming. When teams shave and taper, they perform
extremely well. And we as a team chose to nothere at the invitational,
which is not fun. “In some years, we’ve done this at this
Invite. This year we didn’t so we could save more eggs in the basket
for February for the SEC Championships, which we’re hosting.” After
preliminary swimming, the divers took to the tower for platform diving
for the first time this season. Robles won the event by nearly 70
points, finishing with 404.00, ahead of Kentucky’s Greg Ferrucci’s
336.95. In doing so, Robles became the first Vol to break the 400-point barrier since Gabi Chereches scored 458.95 in 2001. “I
was extremely pleased with Mauricio’s performance in his first-ever
time to compete on the platform in a collegiate event, even though we
know that’s probably his strongest event,” Tennessee diving coach Dave
Parrington said. “He got up and competed with an enormous amount of
composure.” In the third of six rounds, Robles scored a
key 81.00 points on his back three-and-a-half dive, a difficult dive
only a handful of competitors around the world use. “That’s
the best time I’ve seen him do that dive for sure,” Parrington said. “I
had some goosebumps going there. That was awesome.” Senior
Ryan Helms finished fourth in the event with 312.30 points. Junior
Jordan Mauney was seventh with 292.25 and fellow junior Brent Sterling
was 10th with 256.85. For Robles, Friday marks the end of
the competition season. The rest of the Vols’ diving squad will compete
at home Dec. 15-22 as the USA Diving Winter Nationals comes to
Knoxville. THE FIRST MILE The Vols competed in the
1650-yard freestyle for the first time this season, and sophomore
distance swimmer Sam Petersen made the most of his early-season
opportunity by finishing in an NCAA B-cut time of 15 minutes, 22.23
seconds. Tennessee swimmers earned three of the top six
places in the event. Senior Carl Jones was fourth in 15:34.61 and
freshman Shane Kleinbeck ended sixth in 15:51.05. “It was
a very fine mile to start the day by redshirt sophomore Sam Petersen,”
Trembley said. “We hope that time that gets him seeded in the SECs in
the 1650. It was a gutsy swim. Carl Jones swam a very fine mile also.” WINNING RELAY The
Vols, historically successful in the relays, waited until the very last
event to score their first relay victory at the meet: the 400 freestyle. The
Louisville team that finished ahead of them was disqualified for an
early takeoff, so the Vols’ team of Ricky Henahan, Clint Johnson, Ryan
Harrison and Samuel Rairden finished in an NCAA B-cut time of2:57.10. Trembley
said Rairden’s performance this week has been particularly impressive
since the All-American sophomore was battling illness throughout the
meet. SCHEFFER’S SECOND Freshman Ben Scheffer finished
his meet with a strong second-place performance in the 200 backstroke
in 1:46. Senior Anders Storvik was fourth in 1:47.36. “Ben
Scheffer swam his best time by about two seconds, and that’s really
good for this time of year,” Trembley said. “Senior Anders Storvik swam
a phenomenal 200 backstroke as well. Anders has not performed as
well early on this season because he’s trained hard and paid his dues.” TO RECAP: FRESHMAN TRISTAN SLATER’S PERFORMANCE Freshman
Tristan Slater capped his first Tennessee Invitational with five top-10
finishes, including a victory in the 400 individual medley. Slater
currently leads the Vols in top times in the 200 IM (1:49.83), the 400
IM (3:55.23) and the 500 free (4:29.58). “Tristan Slater
has improved radically. He’s really a surprise in the Southeastern
Conference at this point in the year. We’ll expect more out of Tristan
now that he’s shown his hand.” Tennessee Invitational Friday's Results Final Team Standings 1. Louisville: 1,038 2. LSU: 914 3. Tennessee: 822.5 4. Kentucky: 543.5 5. Southern Illinois: 280 Platform
Diving: 1. Mauricio Robles (UT) 404.00; 2. Greg Ferrucci (UK) 336.95;
3. Daniel Helm (LSU) 334.45; 4. Ryan Helms (UT) 312.30; 5. John Fox
(UK) 296.70; 6. Kevin Leong (LSU) 294.85; 7. Jordan Mauney (UT) 292.25;
8. Zachary Peterson (UK) 270.70 ... 10. Brent Sterling (UT) 256.85. 1650
Free: 1. Riley Martin (UL) 15:14.59; 2. Craig Hamilton (LSU) 15:16.80;
3. Sam Petersen (UT) 15:22.23; 4. Carl Jones (UT) 15:34.61; 5. Travis
Green (UK) 15:37.73; 6. Shane Kleinbeck (UT) 15:51.05; 7. Kevin Bandy
(UL) 15:59.45; 8. Csaba Gercsak (SIU) 16:02.16 200 Back:
1. Pedro Oliveira (UL) 1:45.46; 2. Ben Scheffer (UT) 1:46.81; 3.
Michael Young(LSU) 1:47.15; 4. Anders Storvik (UT) 1:47.36; 5. Nick
Kunkel (LSU) 1:47.92; 6. Juan Lopez (UL) 1:47.93; 7. Simon Diefenthal
(LSU) 1:48.94; 8. Lee Duggins (UK) 1:49.58. 100 Free: 1.
Joao De Lucca (UL) 43.16; 2. Andrei Tuomola (LSU) 43.78; 3. Alex Forbes
(UK*) 44.24; 4. Clint Johnson (UT) 44.99; 5. Tyler Reed (UK) 45.06; 6.
Juan Arbelaez Osorio (SIU) 45.10; 7. Albert Lloyd (UL) 45.34; 8. Samuel
Hoekstra (UL) 46.39. 200 Breast: 1. Carlos Almeida (UL)
1:58.47; 2. Addison Bray (UL) 1:58.71; 3. Kameron Chastain (UL)
1:59.41; 4. Ricardo Alvarado Jimenez (LSU) 1:59.74; 5. Kenny Crapse
(UL) 2:01.82; 6. Tristan Slater (UT) 2:03.03; 7. Michael Haefner (UL)
2:03.82; 8. Sean Roddy (LSU) 2:04.69. 200 Fly: 1. Pedro
Oliveira (UL) 1:47.01; 2. Riley Martin (UL) 1:47.51; 3. Frank Greeff
(LSU) 1:47.81; 4. Kevin Bandy (UL) 1:48.09; 5. Matt Parsons (SIU)
1:49.54; 6. Martin Jungfleisch (LSU) 1:50.63; 7. Christoffer Wallin
(UT) 1:51.39; 8. Ben Russell (UK) 1:52.28 400 Free Relay:
1. Tennessee (Henahan, Johnson, Harrison, Rairden) 2:57.10; 2. LSU
(Tuomola, Greeff, Jungfleisch, Saco) 2:58.41; 3. Louisville (Young,
Burtch, Chastain,Edelen) 3:01.07; 4. Southern Illinois (Wolfe, Badrawi,
Parsons, Arbelaez Osorio) 3:01.46; 5. Kentucky (Russell, Reed, Lott,
Green) 3:02.12; 6. Louisville (Linton, Schlytter, Ogle, Gunter)
3:03.08; 7. Kentucky (Thomas, Bullock, Gerotto, Kemme) 3:04.15; 8.
Tennessee (Scheffer, McFall, Kleinbeck, Taylor) 3:04.56.
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