The Georgia men's and women's swimming and diving teams enjoyed solid first days on Friday at the UGA Fall Invitational at Gabrielsen Natatorium.

Mary DeScenza paced the Georgia women by moving up in the school record books in the 200-yard individual medley, while the Bulldogs got solid efforts from stalwarts Sebastien Rouault and Chris Colwill.

"We had a great first day with a bunch of women qualifying for NCAAs," said Georgia coach Jack Bauerle. "Mary was spectacular. That was our fastest (individual medley) all year so she is really on fire right now. Our teams are getting there, but still not hitting on all cylinders. We have a lot more hard work to go to get where we want to be."

The afternoon session began with Georgia's Kara Lynn Joyce, Jessica Cole, Tricia Harm and DeScenza clocking their best 200-yard freestyle relay time of the season at 1:32.47, which gave them third place in the event and a B-cut time.

In the 500 free for Georgia, Laura Conway posted an NCAA automatic qualifying time of 4:43.98, Claire Maust (4:45.66) and Stephanie Carr (4:46.20) lowered their B-cut times and Alyssa Kiel (4:51.86) recorded a B-cut time.

DeScenza (1:58.50) topped the field in the 200 IM, finished with an A-cut time and recorded her all-time best mark as well as tied for the third-best time in Georgia history. In addition, Harm (2:01.47), Sarah Poewe (2:03.38) and Mhyria Miller (2:04.21) all lowered their B-cut times.

In the 50 free, Cole (22.95) lowered her B-cut time as she won the race, while Karen Guilkey (23.55) recorded a B-cut mark.

Aleksandra Putra, Poewe, DeScenza and Joyce topped the field in the 400 medley relay and recorded an A-cut mark at 3:37.40. Harm, Gretchen Corliss, Guilkey and Cole (3:42.55) recorded their first B-cut time.

The Georgia men started the finals on Friday with their best time of the season in the 200 free. Cameron Hollinger, Peter Verhoef, Michael Cellini and Chris Ward finished in 1:20.70, which was also a B-cut effort.

In the 500 free for the Bulldogs, Rouault (4:19.93) won and Matthew Owen (4:26.56) placed fourth as both lowered their B-cut times.

Hollinger (20.24) won the 50 free and lowered his B-cut mark and Verhoef (20.29) also managed to lower his B-cut time in the race.

Colwill, who was competing in his first event of the fall season, won the 3-meter diving versus a field of 12 participants with a score of 403.60.

The next prelim action at the UGA Fall Invitational comes on Saturday morning at 9:30 a.m. with the finals slated for 5 p.m.