Vanderbilt Swimming floundered in its return to the pool on Jan. 3, getting shown up by Kentucky at Centennial Sportsplex in Nashville, Tennessee, in its first meet since the Gamecock Invitational. Seniors Mercedes Traba and Kailia Utley found the podium multiple times but couldn’t tip the scales in Vanderbilt’s favor.

The 200-yard medley relay team of Aubrey Hull, Emily Constable, Karsyn Cook and Reagan Mathieson grabbed second with a time of 1:44.50 to kick off the meet. Traba followed this with a time of 10:26.62 in the 1,000 freestyle — far off her personal best, but still enough to finish second. 

The Commodores then missed the podium in three consecutive events until Utley and Kate Heintz finished second and third, respectively, in the 200 butterfly. Kentucky swept the 50 free, but Mathieson cracked the top three in the 100 free with a time of 52.58 to put her in third. Kentucky once again swept the 200 backstroke, but that was the last sweep of the evening for the Wildcats.

Constable found the podium (third) in the 200 breast and Traba followed with a third-place finish in the 500 free. Vanderbilt was ultimately mercy-ruled after the event, preventing Kentucky from scoring any more points. This helped the Commodores pick up their first win of the meet in the 200-yard individual medley, sweeping the event due to the mercy rule.

Vanderbilt swept the 400 free relay to a similar tune.

The Commodores will jump back into the pool when they host Arkansas for another dual meet at Centennial Sportsplex on Jan. 17.