Despite winning 9 of 16 events on the day, including a trio of wins by University of Kentucky junior Danielle Galyer, the Wildcat women scored a loss against host Arkansas Razorbacks in Fayetteville today. Arkansas wrangled in the wildcats with a win of 162 to 138 in its 2nd meet of the season to bring the Razorback record to 2-0 thus far.
Depth was the name of the game for the Razorback women, as they collected a total of nine 2nd place finishes and nine 3rd place finishes over the course of the meet. The five wins that did fall in Arkansas’ column came in the form of its 200 medley relay, which saw the foursome of Anna Mayfield, Sydney Angell, Natalie Burnett and Nina Drolc register a time of 1:43.08 to defeat the Kentucky squad by just .27 of a second.
Arkansas seniors Maddie Monroe and Anna Mayfield then collected individual wins in the 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle races, respectively, with Monroe clocking a time of 1:51.23 and Mayfield touching in 4:51.42. Two juniors also topped their respective fields in individual races, as Razorback Aiden Lister finished first in the 1000 freestyle (10:10.38) and Natalie Burnett raced to the wall in the 50 freestyle to win in a time of 23.73.
For the Wildcats, junior Galyer threw down three individual wins, including a victory in the 100 backstroke, clocking a time of 53.67, clearing the NCAA “B” cut. Galyer also swam faster than the “B” standard in the 200 backstroke, registering a solid win in a time of 1:56.12. A win in the 200 IM rounded out the Greenville, South Carolina native’s trifecta, where Galyer touched in 2:03.48.
Said Galyer after the meet of her performances, “I was really happy with my individual performances. They were way better than I’ve done in a dual meet since I’ve been in college. So I’m just happy to be moving in the right direction.”
For comparison, at last year’s season opener versus University of South Carolina on this same date, Galyer was over a second slower on the 100 backstroke (55.18), over two seconds slower on the 200 backstroke (1:58.45) and about a half of a second slower in the 200 IM (2:04.03), exemplifying her statement that she most certainly is kicking this year off right.