Results

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. –  The Virginia men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams fell in a dual meet against Tennessee at the Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center on Saturday (Oct. 19). The No. 2 Virginia women’s team (0-1) dropped to No. 15 Tennessee (3-0) 164.5-135.5, while the No. 4 UVA men’s team (0-1) lost 166-134 against the No. 16 Volunteers (3-0).

Junior Paige Madden (Mobile, Ala.) lead the Cavaliers recording three first-place finishes. Madden topped the 1000-yard freestyle with the eighth-fastest time in the country, recording a time of 9:54.48. She followed with a time of 1:46.61 in the 200-yard freestyle and a time of 4:49.83 in the 500-yard freestyle to win both events.

“We had a great meet today against Tennessee,” head coach Todd DeSorbo said. “Obviously, it was tough competition and that’s our goal. We want to compete against teams that are as good, if not better, than us and at certain times of the year some teams are going to be better than us. It was a really good challenge, especially on a last-minute (location) switch. I have to hand it to the team, we fought hard the entire way. We had a lot of energy, a lot of fight and a lot of support for each other, which is always the most important thing. We race as a family, we win as a family, we lose as a family.”

In addition to Madden, seven Cavaliers recorded a win during the meet including a pair of victories from sophomore Casey Storch (Great Falls, Va.). Storch placed first in the 200-yard breaststroke with the seventh-best time in the NCAA this season at 2:00.08 and the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 1:49.00. Sophomore Alexis Wenger (Detroit, Mich.) finished first in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:01.68. Junior Samuel Schilling (Excelsior, Minn.) won the 200-yard freestyle, recording a time of 1:38.21, while senior Ted Schubert (Ashland, Va.) captured the top swim in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 1:47.23, the eighth-best time in the NCAA heading into the weekend. Freshman Jack Walker (Charlotte, N.C.) finished first in the 500-yard freestyle, recording a time of 4:24.42.

On the boards, senior Sydney Dusel (Naperville, Ill.) recorded a score of 282.68 to win the 1m dive as senior Bryce Shelton (Vienna, Va.) won the 3m dive with a score of 374.18.

“Tennessee is a well-coached team and always swims well,” DeSorbo said. “We were happy for the challenge and want to thank them for putting this together last minute. The meet ran great and our team enjoyed racing. We are looking forward to being back here next month.

“There were a lot of highlights today. You can’t always control what the other team is doing and how they are preparing throughout the season but I’m definitely happy with how our squad competed today. We had a lot of wins for the women and a lot of wins for the men. Paige Madden is definitely a mainstay with winning events, and she’s a tough one to beat in any distance freestyle. I’m definitely pleased with where we are at. Again, the ultimate goal is what we do in March at NCAAs and just progressing towards that day-by-day. The goal now is to get back to doing more good work, like we have been, and prepare for this coming weekend against Wisconsin, and just try to be better than we were this weekend. Then from there, try to get better each week.”

The Cavaliers will host their home opener on at the Aquatic and Fitness Center beginning on Friday (Oct. 25) as the team welcomes Wisconsin to Charlottesville for a two-day meet.