KANSAS VS. WILLIAM JEWELL
- Thursday, January 18, 2018
- Robinson Natatorium / University of Kansas / Lawrence, Kansas
- Results
SCORES (WOMEN ONLY)
- Kansas – 130
- William Jewell – 64
PRESS RELEASE – KANSAS
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Having been 60 days since toeing the blocks against another opponent, the Kansas swimming and diving team picked up where it left off in November with a 130-64 victory over William Jewell Thursday night inside Robinson Natatorium.
The win over the Cardinals marked the fifth-straight year the Jayhawks defeated them in dual-meet fashion. En route to the crown, Kansas claimed 12-of-13 first-place finishes and 20 top-three finishes overall.
Head coach Clark Campbell praised his squad for a solid meet to start the second phase of his team’s training.
“It was a quick turnaround from training camp to our first competition in 2018,” Campbell said. “There wasn’t a lot of time to recover, but it was good to get in the pool and race someone different.”
Freshman Lauryn Parrish and junior Haley Bishop scored early points for the Jayhawks with first-place finishes in the 1,000- and the 200-yard freestyles, respectively, to get the meet underway. Parrish’s gold in the 1,000 came on the heels of her debut at the distance, while Bishop claimed her crown in the 200 with a time of 1:51.06.
Both swimmers knew the importance of stringing together a solid meet to start this phase of their training.
“Everyone is starting to sharpen things up,” said Bishop. “It was important for us to get back into a routine after our training camp, and it was good to race someone other than ourselves.”
Parrish agrees that it was important to get back into the pool and into a routine.
“Today was good preparation, and the next two meets are big,” Parrish said. “All three meets are tune-ups for conference, and that is when we need to be at our best.”
Parrish took that sentiment to heart and crushed the 500-yard freestyle where she won with a time of 5:06.45 – 18.86 seconds faster than anyone else in the field. The trendsetter followed up with an anchor leg on the winning 200-yard freestyle relay team with a split of 23.88 – the fastest of the foursome.
Also in the pool, sophomore Haley Downey (100-yard breaststroke), sophomore Elizabeth Amato-Hanner (100-yard backstroke), sophomore Katy Schlies (100-yard butterfly), senior Madison Straight (400-yard individual medley) and junior Taylor Sieperda(50-yard freestyle) joined Parrish and Bishop with first-place finishes in their respective events.
“The next few weeks we will be focusing on our racing fitness,” Campbell said. “We need to clean up some things and be sharper in the water. If we can do that and continue to improve our fitness, we will be where we want to be for the conference meet.”
The Jayhawks are back in action Friday, January 26th when they host Arkansas in Robinson Natatorium. The first event is slated to begin at 5 p.m.