The Trojans men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams scored comfortable wins over the visiting Badgers yesterday afternoon. Wisconsin was able to score some impressive events wins. USC, however, had more firepower across the board in their home pool.
The Badgers Matthew Hutchins, however, did manage to set a school record in the 1000 freestyle in the loss.
The Trojans won the men’s meet 174.5-124.5 while the women took a bigger margin of 186-113.
Women’s Meet
The Trojans were able to win most of the events on the day as well as fill in depth where Wisconsin managed a victory.
It was to stroke specialists: backstroker Hannah Weiss and breaststroke Riley Scott, that led the way with two wins a piece.
Weiss was not challenged on the day and led from start to finish in both the 100 and 200. Scott was even more dominant, taking the 200 breaststroke by nearly four seconds.
The meet also marked the first official action of Kendyl Stewart in the 2015-2016 season, as she returned to win the 100 fly.
Wisconsin distance ace Danielle Valley scored impressive wins in both the 1000 and 500 freestyle. Other winners for the Badgers were Grace Wold in a nail biting 200 fly and Hazel Hertting in a similarly close 1M diving.
Men’s Meet
The Trojan men were eager to avenge last year’s upset loss to the Badgers. They left no doubt throughout the afternoon.
Like Kendyl Stewart in the women’s meet, several swimmers were making their season debuts and came away with victories.
Carsten Vissering won the 100 breaststroke, while Patrick Mulcare bested the Badgers in the 400 IM. Estonian star Ralf Tribuntsov made his debut as well, winning the 50 freestyle. Alex Valente also won the 100 butterfly in his first swim of the season.
The only double winner on the day for the Trojan’s was Jon Knox, who swept the backstroke races just as Weiss did in the women’s meet.
Visiting Wisconsin put up a number of impressive swims, but came away with few victories on the day.
One event where they did get a clear victory was the 1000 freestyle, where Matthew Hutchins went 8:58.45 and set a new school record. Hutchins would follow that up with another easy win in the 500 free.
Cannon Clifton put up impressive times in 50/100/200 free but each time found himself just behind one or two Trojans. His nearest miss came in the 50 free where he was just .o1 behind Tribuntsov.
Carter Clark claimed victory for the Badgers on the 1M diving.
Full results, USC-Wisconsin
Nice win for the Trojans and good to see that top athlete sophomore Tibuntsov and the three freshmen (Valente, Vissering and Mulcare) are back in action this second semester and winning events. Hopefully Trojan men can move up from #17 ranking and into the top 10.Wisconsin doesn’t take the sting out of the stink-it-up performance the football team had against the Badgers in the Holiday Bowl, but that was so 2015 and there are new things to look forward to in 2016.