UE swimming & diving sweeps Bellarmine in dual meet

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WFIE) - The University of Evansville swimming and diving teams picked up right where they left off in the fall on Saturday, as the Purple Aces swept the home-standing Bellarmine Knights in a dual meet at Mary T. Meagher Aquatic Center in Louisville, Kentucky.

The UE men remained undefeated in dual meets on the season with a 156-106 victory, while the UE women improved to 5-1 in dual-meet action with a 142-118 victory.

“Today was a total team effort on both sides,” said UE head swimming and diving coach Stuart Wilson. “We had a lot of different people step up, and it was good to see both teams competing again after two months off from competition.”

The UE men won 10 of the meet’s 14 events, with three Purple Aces posting two wins on the day. Sophomore Jackson Caudill (Mount Sterling, Ky./Montgomery County HS) collected wins in both the 500- and 1,000-yard freestyle events with times of 4:46.09 and 9:47.88 respectively. Junior Riccardo Di Domenico (Johannesburg, South Africa) was also victorious in both the 100- (47.39) and 200-yard freestyle (1:43.51) events, while freshman Daniel Santos Lopez (Madrid, Spain) won both the 100-yard backstroke (52.03) and the 50-yard freestyle (21.75). Mid-year arrival Patrik Vilbergsson also impressed in his first meet at UE, as he posted the Purple Aces’ fastest time of the year in the 200-yard backstroke at 1:55.47 while winning the event by over two seconds.

The UE women also won 10 of the meet’s 14 events, with junior Sarah Jahns (Lilburn, Ga./Parkview HS) putting on a show by winning three individual events in three swims. Jahns started the meet by winning the 1,000-yard freestyle in a time of 10:48.47, before coming back to win the title in the 200-yard backstroke by over six seconds with a time of 2:05.01. Then, four events later, Jahns returned to the pool to win the 500-yard freestyle by over 14 seconds with a strong time of 5:14.73.

Senior Jessie Steele (Houston, Texas/Klein) and junior Maya Cunningham (Yakima, Wash./Eisenhower HS) both recorded doubles for the UE women as well, as Steele won both the 50- and 100-yard freestyle events, while Cunningham took home titles in the 200-yard butterfly and IM events.

“What Sarah was able to do today was impressive, and she really stepped up when we needed her to,” said Wilson. “I thought that the women did a great job of holding together as a team today.”

Evansville will take the next week off before returning to the road on Friday, January 28, as UE will travel to Bloomington, Indiana to take on the nationally-ranked Indiana Hoosiers.