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WEST LAFAYETTE, Indiana, March 19. AFTER beginning the night with a disqualification in the 200 medley relay, the Georgia Bulldogs completed a remarkable comeback with a triumph in the 800 free relay.
Morgan Scroggy, Megan Romano, Chelsea Nauta and Allison Schmitt claimed the title in 6:55.61. The performance crushed the pool record of 7:01.03 set by Georgia back in 2005. The win is Georgia's fourth all time in the event with previous triumphs coming in 2001, 2005 and 2006.
"It was really exciting to be part of the relay team, because going into SEC's I didn't know whether I was going to be a part of the relay team," Romano said. "Being a part of the relay was really exciting. Getting the pool record was great. I went a personal-best split and that was really exciting. Overall, I am really happy at how tonight went."
Georgia registered a 4.39-second triumph over California, which turned in a 7:00.00 by Hannah Wilson, Sara Isakovic, Lauren Boyle and Liv Jensen. While the margin of victory was large tonight, the biggest margin occurred in 1984. Florida (7:06.98) beat Southern California (7:14.94) for the title that year by 7.96 seconds.
Florida's Shara Stafford, Jamie Bohunicky, Teresa Crippen and Melania Costa Schmid wound up third in 7:01.53. Stanford's team of Andrea Murez, Kate Dwelley, Whitney Spence and Julia Smit faded to sixth in 7:03.41.
Stanford ended the day with a leading tally of 266.5, while Georgia completed a valiant comeback bid to stand second with 262.5 points. Arizona (259.5) and California (256) also are in contention for the title tomorrow, while Florida (236) and Texas A&M (216) have an outside shot.
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