Comerford, Oglesby Shine on Final Day of IU Invitational

Saturday, November 17

Bloomington, IN

All Day

University of Louisville

Indiana Invite

Mallory Comerford races the 100 freestyle at the Ralph Wright Natatorium.

Comerford, Oglesby Shine on Final Day of IU Invitational

November 17, 2018 | Swimming & Diving

Complete Results

The Louisville women finished second and the men finished third among a strong field.

By: Kylie Klotzbach

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Mallory Comerford and Grace Oglesby earned a pair of NCAA A cuts in their respective individual events to lead the University of Louisville men's and women's swimming and diving team through the final day of competition at the IU Invitational in Bloomington, Ind. on Saturday evening.

The No. 8 Louisville women finished second overall with 1551.5 points behind No. 7 NC State with 1592. No. 13 Indiana was third (1421), followed by Arizona State (820) and No. 17 Purdue (613.5). The second-ranked Indiana men won with 1828.5 points, followed by No. 3 NC State with 1666.5 points. The ninth-ranked Cardinals placed third (1187) and No. 17 Arizona State was fourth (1128).

Sophie Cattermole kicked off the Cardinals' evening with a third place finish in the 1650 free, stopping the clock in an NCAA B cut time of 16:09.49. Four Cardinals earned NCAA B cuts in the men's event, led by Marcelo Acosta in fourth with a 15:04.25. T.C. Smith was sixth (15:07.79), followed by Graham Barrett in eighth (15:15.81) and Hayden Curley in 11th (15:20.15).

In the 200 back, Alina Kendzior was the Cardinals' top finisher with a fifth place finish in an NCAA B cut time of 1:55.11. Ashlyn Schoof also competed in the A final, touching eighth in a B standard time of 1:56.69. Sofie Underdahl tied for first in the B final with a 1:55.62, which was also an NCAA B cut.

Nicolas Albiero and Nikkos Sofianidis competed in the A final of the men's 200 back. Albiero placed fourth with an NCAA B cut time of 1:43.59, while Sofianidis was seventh in a time of 1:45.21.

The women's 100 free A final featured six Cardinals, highlighted by a victory and an NCAA A cut time of 47.04 from Comerford. Arina Openysheva took third with a time of 48.80, followed by Annette Schultz in fourth (49.33), Casey Fanz and Lainey Visscher who tied for fifth with a 49.36 and Diana Dunn in seventh (50.04). Avery Braunecker (49.24) and Katie Schorr (49.40) also earned a pair of NCAA B cuts and took the top two spots in the B final.

Andrej Barna turned in a sixth place finish in the 100 free, registering an NCAA B cut time of 43.23. Matyi Kovacs was 15th overall with a time of 44.19.

Mariia Astashkina (2:09.81) and Morgan Friesen (2:09.85) each dropped considerable time from their morning swims to place sixth and seventh in the 200 breast A final and pick up NCAA B standard times.

Evgenii Somov also dropped over a second from his prelims swim to secure a second place finish in the men's 200 breast with a B cut time of 1:56.42. Daniel Sos took third in the B final with a 1:58.51, followed by Michael Hampel in 13th (2:00.09) and Griffin Manning in 14th (2:02.06).

Oglesby completed a sweep of the butterfly events, posting a dominant win in the 200 fly with an NCAA A cut time of 1:52.64. Alena Kraus finished second to help the Cards to the 1-2 finish, registering an NCAA B cut time of 1:55.73. Carley Lowe also had a solid swim to win the B final with a time of 1:59.44.

Zach Harting was Louisville's top performer in the men's 200 fly as he raced to the wall in a B standard time of 1:43.72 to finish fourth. Jarrett Jones finished third in the B final with a 1:47.21.

Earlier in the day, the Cardinal divers competed on the platform finals. Molly Fears took third with an NCAA Zone qualifying score of 238.40. Anika Holland also had a solid showing, finishing fourth with a score of 217.80. Daniel Fecteau led the Louisville men with a second place finish in a Zone qualifying score of 321.70. Kivanc Gur also secured a Zone cut with a fourth place finish (306.80).

The Cardinals earned yet another NCAA automatic qualifying time in the 400 free relay as Visscher (49.92), Fanz (48.98), Openysheva (48.22) and Comerford combined to post a 3:13.72 and capture the victory. The men's 400 free relay team of Barna (42.93), Harting (42.53), Albiero (43.06) and Kovacs (43.60) wrapped up the Cards' successful weekend with a fourth place finish in a time of 2:52.12.

Up next, select members of the team will head to Greensboro, N.C. for the USA Swimming Winter National Championships from Nov. 29 through Dec. 1.