Jayhawks Sweep Cardinals in Fall Finale

Meet Results (.pdf)

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Freshman duo Cassaundra Pino and Breonna Barker highlighted a dominant Kansas outing with a photo finish in the 200-yard freestyle Friday evening inside Robinson Natatorium. Pino, who claimed the win, was one of eight different Jayhawks to tally a victory in their dual against William Jewell.
 
Pino was trailing Barker for most of the race, but managed to out-kick her teammate by three-hundredths of a second to earn the victory and tally a season-best mark with a time of 1:56.24. The Albuquerque, New Mexico native’s win was one of 11 Kansas first-place finishes as the squad went on to beat William Jewell, 126-67.
 
“I felt like I had a lot in me in the last 100 that I probably could’ve picked up my tempo earlier,” Pino said. “I realized that at the end so that’s why I think I was able to catch her. It’s a season-best, which is good, but I want it to get a little bit better.”
 
Along with multiple event wins, KU registered the top-three times in six races throughout the course of the meet. The first of those sweeps came in the 400-yard medley relay with Kansas’ A squad, consisting of Hannah Angell, Haley Bishop, Bryce Hinde and Pia Pavlic, winning the race by nearly nine seconds (3:52.80).
 
Junior Lindsay Manning initiated a slew of Jayhawk victories in the individual events with a dominating performance in the 1,000-yard freestyle. Swimming the event for the third time this season, Manning won the race with a season-best mark of 10:30.69 and led the rest of her competition by a whole pool length.
 
The Spring, Texas product returned to the pool for the 500-yard freestyle and turned in another first-place finish with ease in a time of 4:09.32. She finished nine seconds ahead of William Jewell’s Maddie Allen (5:18.23). Manning’s time in the 500 free was her best in a dual meet this year.
 
“I felt really good and strong today,” Manning said. “I just wanted to go out and see what I could do and focus on the little things that I knew I needed to work on like my turns and the walls. I find when I focus on those little details I perform better as a whole. I’m really happy with where I’m at in the season.”
 
Kansas collected back-to-back event sweeps in the 200-yard individual medley and 200-yard butterfly. Madison Straight led the way in the 200 IM swimming a 2:07.47 with Pavlic (2:07.68) and Gretchen Pocisk (2:13.90) rounding out the top three. Freshman Haley Bishop took the 200 fly with a six second advantage over teammates Pino (2:09.95) and Leah Pfitzer (2:10.60).
 
Junior’s Angell and Pavlic doubled up for a pair of wins in the 100-yard freestyle and 200-yard backstroke, respectively, to bring the Jayhawks total to eight consecutive victories. Pavlic edged out teammate Hannah Driscoll in the 100 free with a mark of 52.73 and William Jewell’s Jordan Hamilton took third in the event. Angell went on to win the 200 back in 2:07.30.
 
The individual events concluded with a victory from Kansas senior Bryce Hinde who registered a time of 2:22.69 and finished ahead of teammates Pocisk (2:24.06) and Straight (2:27.82), completing KU’s sixth event sweep of the meet.
 
Kansas’ A relay, made up of Bishop, Driscoll, Pfitzer, and Taylor Sieperda, won the 400-yard freestyle relay in a time of 3:33.32 to finish the meet unscathed, winning all eleven events of the night.
 
“We know that we’ve put in the work,” Manning reflected on the team’s performance. “It was the last meet of 2015 so we wanted to finish on a good strong note and have fun while doing it. I think we really accomplished that today.”
 
This evening’s meet wrapped up the 2015 fall season for the Jayhawks, who finished with a 4-1 dual meet record. Kansas will resume action Jan. 8 when they head to Florida for a pair of double duals along with their annual training trip, which will take place in Key Largo, Florida.
 
In other competition, Chelsie Miller and Yulya Kuchkarova were among four Jayhawks who competed Friday at the AT&T Winter Nationals in Federal Way, Wash., with both advancing to event finals to be swum late. A recap of that event will be posted to KUAthletics.com at the end of the day’s competition.
 
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