Georgia
Three swimmers and one diver reached standards that will qualify them for the upcoming NCAA Championships during the Bulldog Invitational that concluded on Sunday at Gabrielsen Natatorium.
The highlight on Sunday came as Shauna Lee posted a time of 1:45.43 in the 200 freestyle to make the field for the NCAAs, which will be held March 16-19 at Georgia Tech. Lee reached the mark swimming a time trial as the only competitor.
“I feel really happy,” said Lee, a freshman from Great Britain. “It was my very last chance to qualify for NCAAs, so that’s quite satisfying. I had incredible support from my amazing teammates and it feels to great to do that for them.”
During Saturday’s competition, James Guest and Powell Brooks advanced for the Bulldogs, whose NCAAs will be March 23-26 at Georgia Tech. Guest notched a time of 1:54.64 in the 200 breaststroke and Brooks went 1:42.90 in the 200 butterfly.
Also on Saturday, Natalie Wallace reached the standard for platform diving at the NCAA Zone Championships March 7-9 at Georgia Tech. Wallace scored 260.65 points to give Georgia a full complement of divers at the zone meet.
“What a neat experience for all of those student-athletes,” Georgia head coach Jack Bauerle said. “It’s a lot of pressure trying to make it, but they all were extremely focused this weekend and they had their teammates pushing them on. We could not be happier for all of them.”
During Sunday’s meet, Basil Orr improved his B cut in the 200 breaststroke to 1:59.11 and Colin Monaghan landed on the provisional time of 1:59.79. Blake Atmore improved his B-cut time in the 200 butterfly to 1:44.54. John Mattern lowered his B-cut time in the 100 breaststroke to 54.45.
Both Georgia teams are coming off third-place showings at the Southeastern Conference Championships in Columbia, Mo. The recap of the men's championship will air on Wednesday at 4 p.m. on ESPNU, followed by the women's recap at 5:30 p.m.
Alabama
The contingent of Alabama swimmers and divers who took part in the Bulldog Invitational this weekend in Athens, Ga., finished strong Sunday, posting several career-best times and individual wins on the meet’s final meet.
Sophomore Temarie Tomley won the 100 freestyle with a 49.32. Later in the meet, she posted a career-best 22.63 in the 50 freestyle, which moves her to second all-time at Alabama. Junior Pavel Romanov shaved time off his career best in the 100 breaststroke, posting a 52.76 on Sunday.
Junior Alex Gray won the men’s 100 freestyle with a time of 43.47 while senior Crews Wellford was third with a 44.29 after posting a 44.19 in prelims.
Junior Brent Sagert won the men’s 3-meter springboard with a score of 376.40 while junior Taylor Zablocki took second off the women’s 3-meter board with a 313.08 score. Junior Dylan Marin won the men’s platform with 332.85 points while sophomore Kara Fredlock took third in the women’s platform with 245.70 points.
Junior Jacob Kelsoe posted a career-best 1:45.54 in the prelims of the 200 backstroke before coming back in the finals with a 1:45.64 and second place.
Duke
A trio of Blue Devil women traveled to Athens over the weekend to compete at the Bulldog Invitational, hosted by the University of Georgia at Gabrielsen Natatorium.
Freshman Mickayla Hinkle took down the program record in the 100-yard backstroke, clocking 53.04 in Saturday’s preliminaries. That time shaved .4 seconds off her previous season best in the event and was under the NCAA ‘B’ standard of 55.09.
Sophomore Verity Abel competed in the 1,650 freestyle, dropping more than 11 seconds off her season best to touch at 16:17.89. She earned a ‘B’ cut with the swim, in addition to ranking second on Duke’s all time performance list. Abel’s 1,000 split of 9:50.39 was also good for a personal-best time and the second fastest in program history.
Freshman Maddie Hess joined Hinkle and Abel in Athens, taking part in the sprint events. She went 22.56 in a 50 freestyle time trial and tapped the wall at 50.04 in the 100 freestyle preliminaries. The Brandon, Fla., native owns NCAA ‘B’ cuts this season in both of those events as well as in the 100 and 200 backstroke.
The Blue Devil women are coming off of a sixth-place finish at the 2016 ACC Championship. The sixth-place showing was the best for the women’s program since 2010.
Florida
Twelve University Florida men's and women's swimmers notched an additional 13 NCAA provisional qualifying times to wrap up competition inside the Gabrielsen Natatorium at the Bulldog Invitational Last Chance Meet on Sunday. Overall this weekend, 17 Gators swam to a combined 28 NCAA ‘B’ cuts and 20 career-best times.
On the men’s side, newcomers Brennan Balogh and Andrew Brady led the pack with three NCAA cuts apiece. Freshman Sydney Sell led the Gator women with a pair while senior Lindsey McKnight, who returned from two broken legs this summer, swam the top time in the women’s 200-Yard freestyle with a season-best time of 1:46.03.
This weekend’s two-day event served as the final opportunity for swimmers to post an NCAA-qualifying mark eligible for the 2016 NCAA Championships. Competition wise, the meet operated as a time trial with no team scoring. If swimmers are unable to hit the automatic qualifying times, they can still advance to the NCAA meet in events that are not filled up with the automatic qualifiers.
The official lists of 2016 NCAA participants will be available on March 2 (women’s), and March 9 (men’s).
Florida Gulf Coast
With one last chance to qualify for the 2016 NCAA Championships, the FGCU swimming and diving team came up just short of doing so at the Bulldog Invitational held at the University of Georgia's Gabrielsen Natatorium Sunday afternoon.
"We would've liked to get that fourth individual into the NCAA meet, but we're proud of the girls for their efforts this weekend and throughout the whole season," said FGCU head coach Neal Studd. "We're excited about going back to Atlanta and hope to build off of last year's finish."
Christina Kaas Elmgreen (Charlottenlund, Denmark/Ordrup Gymnasium) eclipsed her school record in the 200-yard butterfly and finished first in the event after touching the pads in 1:57.56. However, she will come up less than half of a second shy of cracking the top-38 times in the event necessary to qualify for next month's NCAA Championships.
Katie Armitage (Bushey, United Kingdom/Queens School Bushey) didn't turn in her best performance in the 200-yard breaststroke as she clocked a time of 2:24.27 in the preliminary race followed by a 13th-place finish in the final event in a time of 2:27.35.
Evita Leter (Paramaribo, Suriname/Doral Academy) swam a time of 52.94 seconds in the prelims of the 100-yard freestyle but didn't qualify for the final event.
FGCU will send three swimmers to the 2016 NCAA Championships as Elise Haan (Naples, Fla./Gulf Coast HS), Katie Latham (Deal, Kent, United Kingdom/Sir Roger Manwood's School) and Fanny Teijonsalo (Espoo, Finland/Makelanrinteen Lukio) all stayed inside the top-38 invite line. Haan ranks 15th in the 100-yard backstroke while Teijonsalo ranks 31st in the 100-yard butterfly and Latham currently ranks 36th in the 50-yard freestyle. Those three will also be able to compete in any stroke they surpassed the NCAA 'B' cut standard this season.
Nebraska
Taryn Collura completed her weekend of competition at the University of Georgia’s Last Chance Meet Sunday afternoon. Collura competed in the 100-yard freestyle on Sunday.
Collura notched another NCAA B Cut after posting a career-best time of 48.87 in the 100-yard freestyle. Collura’s performance was the fastest time in Sunday’s preliminary round.
Collura also competed yesterday in both the 50-yard freestyle and the 200-yard freestyle. In the 50-yard freestyle Collura tied for first-place swimming an NCAA B Cut time of 22.65. Collura also had the fastest time in the preliminary round racing to a time of 22.53. While swimming the 200-yard freestyle, Collura finished in 13th-place with a time of 2:20.90 in the finals and a time of 2:17.63 in the prelims.
The Nebraska swimming and diving team will be back in action as the team’s divers travel to College Station, Texas to compete at the NCAA Zone Diving Meet, March 7-9.
South Carolina
Two more Gamecocks posted season-best times on Sunday as the University of South Carolina Swimming & Diving program took part in the Bulldog Last Chance Invitational. Freshman Cody Bekemeyer and senior Kevin Leithold each moved one step closer to the NCAA Championships with their performances in the last opportunity for swimmers to post a qualifying time.
Bekemeyer swam a time of 14:55.46 in the 1,650-yard freestyle, more than seven seconds lower than his effort last week at the SEC Championships. The freshman finished 10th at the conference meet and now holds the 19th-fastest mile time in the season this year, giving him an outstanding opportunity to represent the Gamecocks at the NCAA Championships.
Leithold posted a 100-yard breaststroke split of 53.01 on Sunday, lowering his season-best time by .07 seconds. That time would rank as 35th-best in the nation this season as of Sunday.
Gamecocks Jonathan Boland and Taylor Worrell also competed at the Last Chance Invitational, with Worrell breaking her own school record in the 500-yard freestyle on Saturday. Her time of 4:41.67 is 28th-best in the nation.
Southern Illinois
Five Saluki men’s swimmers concluded the 2015-16 season on Sunday at the University of Georgia Bulldog Invitational. Nolan Fahey, Kristian Troxel, Joe Seguine-Hall, Nolan Hillard and Cole Case finished the weekend with a combined 13 personal best finishes.
Each SIU swimmer competed in three events at the last-chance meet, all coming away with at least one personal best. Fahey, Troxel and Case ended with their fastest times of the season in each of their races.
Fahey knocked off more than 20 seconds in his 500-yard freestyle swim, finishing in fifth place at 4:38.47. His prelim time, 4:35.93, is a new personal best, after coming into the meet with a 4:58.23 as his fastest time. The same was true for his performances in the 200-yard freestyle and backstroke races as Fahey dropped 15 seconds in the freestyle and six seconds in backstroke.
Junior Kristian Troxel’s best finish of the weekend came in the 400-yard IM, where he finished the A Final in 6th place at 3:59.59. Troxel entered the weekend with a season best of 4:15.71, dropping over 15 seconds for his final time. Strong performances in the 200-yard IM and 200-yard butterfly also resulted in personal bests for Troxel.
The 50-yard freestyle race was a success for the Salukis as Cole Case, Nolan Hillard and Joe Seguine-Hall all shaved off time for personal best finishes. Case also swam his fastest times of the season in the 100-yard backstroke and 100-yard freestyle, while Seguine-Hall and Hillard earned personal bests in the 200-yard freestyle.
“I am very happy with the way our guys swam in Georgia. They ended the season on a high note,” head coach Rick Walker said. “It’s not easy to travel that far and accomplish that much, but it’s a good indication that we are in for a good week coming up with conference.”
The rest of the Saluki men will conclude their season this week at the MAC Championship meet beginning Wednesday.
