The Vanderbilt swimming and diving team put up some of its best times of the season over last weekend but fell short in a Southeastern Conference meet in Knoxville against Tennessee and Arkansas.

The Commodores fell to the Razorbacks 252-48 and the Volunteers 248-48 after putting up their first two wins since 2006 on Oct. 11 against Centre and Rhodes in Nashville.

Freshman Allie Voss led the team with an eighth-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke, posting a personal best time of 1:08.45.

Freshman Zoe Cooper-Surma put up a 25.60 in the 50-yard freestyle, the best for Vanderbilt this season. Sophomore Jennifer Molchan swam a 54.95 in the 100-yard freestyle, also a personal season best.

Sophomore Anna Fargo, who swims freestyle events for the Commodores, took some time to answer questions about the team's performance against Tennessee and Arkansas, as well as what they'll be working on with the Phil Hansel Duals coming up in November in Houston, Texas.

Vanderbilt Hustler: Generally, despite the loss, how does the team felt they performed against Tennessee and Arkansas?
Anna Fargo: As we get farther into the season and increase the intensity of our workouts, we get more tired and it seems so much more difficult to race. However, I think that this year, we're doing a better job of stepping up and keeping our times faster at each meet, despite how much it might hurt, and last Friday was no exception. Also, competing against big SEC schools with established swim teams can be discouraging, but I can already see improvement in how we compete against those teams. It starts with attitude - less negativity translates to a mentally stronger team, which generally results in better races.

VH: What will you all be working on most between now and your next meet?
AF: Our next meet isn't until Nov. 14, so we'll definitely continue upping the intensity of our workouts. Also, changing little things in our strokes and working on starts and turns will help shave some time off.

VH: How large is the difference in competition between competing against SEC teams and teams like Rhodes and Centre (whom the Commodores defeated in Nashville on Oct. 11)?
AF: Well, honestly, there is a huge difference in competition between SEC teams and schools like Rhodes and Centre. The SEC is overall probably the fastest swimming conference, and all of the other swim/dive teams (in the SEC) have had years to get to where they are. We just got started two years ago, and last year was the first season with recruits, so we know it will take some time to get to the level of the other SEC teams, but we're working in that direction. Rhodes and Centre have good D3 swim teams, and that was an exciting tri-meet because we really got to race the other teams. The difference is in division, but give our team some time, and I have confidence that we will be so much more competitive with in the SEC. We signed up to build this team, so that's what we're doing, and I love it!

VUCommodores contributed the statistics for this article.