Tomas Lukminas Paces Arizona to Split against USC
Tomas Lukminas won two individual events and on two relays to lead Arizona’s men’s team to a 182-118 win over former Pac-12 foe USC in Tucson Friday. The USC women claimed a 189-109 victory.
Lukminas led a 1-2 result for the Wildcats in the 200 free, his time of 1:33.71 just .33 ahead of teammate Ralph Daleiden Ciuferri. That was the same duo in the 100 free, Lukminas winning in 42.49, the Luxembourg international following in 42.58, then Taylor Luck third.
Lukminas anchored Arizona’s victorious 400 medley relay, joining Alex Desangles, Tavner Wisdom and Haakon Naughton to go 3:05.71. Lukminas’ 19.38 leadoff led the 200 free relay of Jakey Hutchinson, Taylor Luck and Daleiden Ciuferri to win in 1:16.94, Luck splitting a race-best 18.98.
Arizona shifted the meet with a set of 1-2-3s and close races in the middle phase. Wisdom won the 100 breaststroke in 53.42, .03 ahead of USC’s Sanberk Yigit Oktar and .08 up on Junhao Chan. Naughton followed by claiming the 200 fly by .06 seconds in 1:42.31. Hutchinson’s 19.62 won the 50 free, followed to the wall by Luck and Aidan Flanagan. When Lukminas came out of the diving break in the 100 free sweep, that was about that.
Desagnles won the 200 back in a 1-2 with Duncan Henderson. He was third in the 100 back, won by Henderson. Naughton added the 100 fly title.
The Chmielewski brothers led USC. Kryzsytof Chmielewski won the 1,000 free in 9:05.51 and the 500 in 4:21.72. He was second to Naughton in the 200 fly. Michal Chmielewski was second in the 100 back and 100 fly. Chan won the 200 breast, and Charlie Bufton won the 400 individual medley.
USC got a boost from Moritz Wesemann, who outdueled Arizona’s Gage Dubois twice. He scored 393.15 on 1-meter and 371.25 on 3-meter.
Justina Kozan had an unbeaten day to lead USC’s women. She started by swimming fly on the winning 400 medley relay, helping the quartet of Minna Abraham, Bella Brito and Nicole Maier win in 3:30.87.
The Trojans leveraged that butterfly dominance with 1-2-3 results in both. It was the trio in each, with Kozan going 1:55.80 to lead Sage Miller and Camden Doane in the 200. Kozan went 52.89 to edge Miller by six tenths in the shorter event. Kozan tacked on a 400 IM triumph by going 4:08.73. Second was Ashley McMillan, who won the 200 breast and was second in the 100 breast.
Claire Tuggle claimed the 200 free (1:44.99) and the 500 (4:44.74). Alisee Pisane won the 1,000 free for USC. Abraham claimed the 100 back in 51.49 and the 100 free in 47.92. Dara Molnar took home the 200 back after finishing third in the 200 free.
Arizona finished the meet with a consolation victory in the 200 free relay, the team of Riley Botton, Julia Wozniak (21.80), Eleni Gewalt and Patricija Kondraskaite going 1:28.61 to win. Wozniak (22.15) and Botton (22.29) went 1-2 in the 50 free. Gewalt won the 100 breast.
