It was the final home meet for 11 seniors, and the Eagles went out in style posting a 117-85 victory of the Ospreys from the University of North Florida.
"We had some really good swims today, especially by our seniors," complimented Head Coach Nate Kellogg. "The seniors were excited for today, as she should be, and our divers dove well too. Overall it was a great day and we were solid."
The meet opened with a Georgia Southern sweep in the 400 Medley Relay. The team of Christina Moran, Abbie Lavallin, Megan Heller and Elaina Lanson touched first in 3:54.34. Touching in 2nd with a time of 4:09.54 was Anna Battistello, Rebecca Alves, Sarah Schwartz, and Megan Liebel. In 3rd was Kaylyn Thomas, Taylor Kelsch, Lauren Campbell, Ali Snover with a time of 4:09.55
The 200 free was another Eagles sweep as Amber Juncker won with a time of 1:57.50, Campbell was 2nd in 1:57.58, and Moran 3rd with a time of 1:58.93.
In the 50 free, Elaina Lanson set a new pool record on senior day as she touched in 23.26. The previous record of 23.43 was set in 2012 by a swimmer from Florida Gulf Coast.
"Elaina was tremendous, that was a heck of a swim," said Kellogg. "We've been working with her a lot lately on some of those small details that make a difference. She was definitely motivated to get that time on senior day. It feels good to take that record back after the 3 years that it stood."
The 50 free also saw Kylee Parsons touch 2nd in 24.32, and Snover finish 3rd in 25.51.
In the 200 IM, Alves got the victory in 2:12.36 while Schwartz was 2nd in 2:14.00. The 200 fly saw Kaylyn Thomas win with a time of 2:11.95.
In 3 meter diving, Erin Hembree won with a total score of 246.98. Newcomer Chloe Cotter was 2nd with a point total of 193.73. The 1 meter event again saw Hembree get the win with 218.93 points and Cotter finish 2nd with a total of 182.25 points.
The 200 back was another Eagles sweep as Alves was 1st in 2:12.79, Mae McWhorter was 2nd in 2:14.56 and Parsons was 3rd in 2:14.95. The 200 breast was won by Juncker in 2:29.76 while Campbell was 2nd in 2:32.72.
In the 1000 free, McWhorter finished 2nd in 10:45.12. She was edged by Amy Taylor of UNF who finished in 10:36.81. The 100 free saw Hannah Rogers finish 3rd with a time of 54.94
The meet concluded with the 400 free relay. The team of Heller, Schwartz, Lanson and Rogers won with a time of 3:39.56 while the North Florida team of Taylor, Rebeca Bernard, Taylor Schmidinger, and Maria Bernard was 2nd in 3:40.72
Georgia Southern will now look ahead to Jan. 30 when they travel to Wilmington, North Carolina for meets against UNC-Wilmington, Liberty and College of Charleston.
Concluded Kellogg, "Next week is going to be tough. Liberty are the defending CCSA Conference Champions, and we haven't swam Wilmington since I've been coaching, so we are going to need to be our best for that meet."
