Hogs Sweep Little Rock in Season Opener
No. 19 Arkansas swimming and diving opened the 2019-20 season with a sweep against Little Rock 161-121 at the HPER Natatorium. the Razorbacks won all 16 events and had 32 podium finishes, with amazing contribution from every single one of the girls.
The sophomore and Junior class made sure they would be noticed with Distance swimmers like Lexi Ljunggren and Peyton Palsha who showed their endurance winning all Distance events. Vanessa Herrmann, Emma Garfield and Andrea Sansores showed resilience and fight in the breaststroke, butterfly and IM events. Maddie Pearl won her first college event of her career in the 200 Backstroke with a time 2:04.77.
“Some of our NCAA swimmers did very well, Peyton lead well in the 1,000,” Coach Neil Harper said. “I thought Emma Garfield did a great job in the breaststrokes and IM, and Vanessa looked strong in the breaststrokes too.”
Veteran diver Estilla Mosena really stepped up to the plate, winning both the 1m(275.63) and 3m(287.40) dives.
“I thought that Esti did a really good job on the diving boards over there, she’ll have to step up for us this year, and that’s exactly what she did. She is coming back from a major injury, major surgery, so that was a brave effort from her and some really nice diving.”
Freshmen like Maddie London, Emma Hultquist and Jessie Beckwith had fantastic performances, especially it being their first meet as a Hog.
“The freshman did really well today, I was a little worried where they were maybe 3 weeks ago, but they have come in and listened and have been coachable that’s the most important thing. When they make that jump from club/high school to college you really need to get the finer things down.” Harper said. “Under the pressure of being freshman they did a really good job of executing their races well and that gives me hope for the rest of the year.”
With outstanding performances all around the block, the Hogs will find themselves heading into the next meet against the No. 1 Stanford Cardinals with confidence.