Georgia Fall Invitational, Night 2: Bella Sims Fires 4:00.44 400 IM
Bella Sims has had a memorable opening two nights at the Georgia Fall Invitational. After a best college time in the 500 free on Wednesday night, she returned Thursday to win the 400 individual medley in a time that is a second faster than her previous college best.
The action from night 2 at the Gabrielsen Natatorium:
Women’s 200 medley relay
Alabama picked up a second relay win in a thriller of a race decided by .04 over Florida. Bama won in 1:35.12. Both are A cuts. Florida’s time is the fourth-best in program history.
As she was Wednesday, Cadence Vincent was the different for the Crimson Tide. She joined Emily Jones, Avery Wiseman and Jada Scott with an anchor swim of 21.30 that was four-tenths quicker than Bella Sims to chase the Gators down.
Florida was second, with Catie Choate, Anita Bottazzo, Olivia Peoples (22.60) and Sims. Georgia’s A squad was disqualified, allowing Bama’s B to finish third and LSU fourth.
Men’s 200 medley relay
Fresh off last spring’s NCAA record, Florida trounced all comers in the 200 medley relay, going 1:21.49 to win by nearly two seconds. Jonny Marshall (20.83), Julian Smith (22.57), Josh Liendo (19.30) and Alex Painter (18.79) comprised the squad. It’s an NCAA A cut.
So is the runner-up time of 1:23.44 from LSU, with a Jere Hribar 18.14 on the end. Stepan Goncharov, Mitch Mason and Griffin Curtis made up the team.
Missouri was third in 1:24.19, with Georgia fourth in 1:24.30.
Women’s 400 individual medley
Bella Sims didn’t swim the 400 IM at NCAAs last year, a decision that might go in for a bit of reanalysis this year.
Sims went 4:00.44 Thursday night to beat, among others, NCAA runner-up Emma Weyant. Sims’ time is her best in college, having gone 4:01.47 at this meet a year ago. She went 3:56.59 in the winter of 2022.
Florida toyed with the field, taking the top seven spots and setting the top eight times in prelims. Weyant was second in 4:01.01. She went 3:59.00 at NCAAs last year. Like Sims, her time is an A cut. Zoe Dixon was just outside the A cut of 4:03.62 with her 4:03.99. Mabel Zavaros (4:05.83) and Julie Brousseau (4:09.65) rounded out the top five.
Men’s 400 individual medley
Jake Magahey led the way with a time of 3:39.56 that left him more than three seconds clear of the field. Magahey had finished first in prelims. His time is 1.19 seconds shy of the auto qualifying standard for NCAAs.
Giovanni Linscheer of Florida finished second in 3:42.82. Drew Hitchcock of Georgia was third in 3:45.19, with Florida taking the next four spots, led by Eric Brown’s 3:45.84.
Women’s 100 butterfly
Olivia Peoples was slower than her pace-setting swim in prelims but still quick enough to nab a win. Peoples outdueled Alabama’s Emily Jones coming home to win in 51.56 seconds. She had been 51.16 in prelims. Jones finished in 51.97. The A cut is 50.52.
Alabama’s Victoria Raymond was third in 52.21, though she too was quicker in the morning at 52.04. Addison Reese finished fourth in 52.30 in an A final were all eight swimmers broke 53 seconds.
Men’s 100 butterfly
Josh Liendo dominated the field with a time of 44.60 that, while well off the speed he used to win the NCAA title last year, was still more than a second clear of the field. Second to the Canadian was his Florida teammate Scotty Buff in 45.69. Jan Zubik of Missouri finished third in 45.99, with Tim Korstanje fourth in 46.61.
Women’s 200 freestyle
Georgia’s Marie Landreneau picked up a win in front of home fans in an A final exclusive to the Bulldogs. Landreneau’s time of 1:43.32 is outside of the A cut of 1:42.60, but it led the way in a Bulldog bonanza.
Ieva Maluka finished second in 1:44.12, followed by Dune Coetzee in 1:45.00, .09 up on Rachel Stege, who bested Shea Furse by a tenth.
Men’s 200 freestyle
Charlie Hawke secured an NCAA A cut by defending his top time in prelims in 1:31.05. Hawke was fourth in this event last year at NCAAs in 1:30.58.
Hawke had two teammates in the top four with him, Kaique Alves going 1:31.78 for third and Toni Dragoja fourth in 1:33.61. In between was runner-up Tomas Koski of Georgia in 1:31.72.
Jere Hribar, in looking for third event, finished sixth in 1:34.65.
Women’s 100 breaststroke
Italian freshman Anita Bottazzo is making an instant impact in Gainesville. That includes an A cut and a school record.
Bottazzo clubbed more than a second off the Gators program record in the 100 breast with her winning time of 57.49 on Thursday. She was nearly 1.5 seconds clear of the time set by previous record holder, Molly Mayne, who went 58.97 for second place. Mayne’s record from 2023 was 58.68.
Alabama’s Avery Wiseman finished third in 59.89, .14 slower than she had been in prelims. Lina Bank of Missouri was also under a minute in 59.97, while Alabama’s Diana Petkova did that in the morning in 59.85, slowing up at night to finish fifth.
Men’s 100 breaststroke
If one breaststroke record is good, than a second is better. And this one brings even more history.
Julian Smith blasted into a rarefied air, his time of 49.98 seconds not only breaking Calaeb Dressel’s school record of 50.03 but making him just the fourth swimmer to dip under 50 seconds. He joins Max McHugh (49.90 and 49.95 at 2022 NCAAs), long-time NCAA record holder Ian Finnerty (49.69 in 2018 and 49.85 in 2019) and 2024 champion Liam Bell (49.53) as the No. 4 performer all-time.
Smith was out in 23.45 and back in 26.53. The A cut is 51.02.
Second went to fellow Floridian Aleksas Savickas in 51.36. Mitch Mason of LSU was third in 52.08. Trey Sheils of Alabama was fourth, unable to match his morning speed of 51.91.
Women’s 100 backstroke
Emily Jones tacked on another win for Alabama, her time of 50.75 clearly separated from the pack to win by nearly a second. She is agonizingly close to the A cut, which stands at 50.66.
Second was Eboni McCarty of Georgia, who went 51.61. She beat Florida’s Catie Choate on the touch by .08. LSU’s Valeriia Egorova was fourth.
Men’s 100 backstroke
Jonny Marshall flirted with the A cut but fell a half-second shy in winning in 45.02. He was trailed by Grant Bochenski of Missouri, who went 45.66, and Sam Powe of Georgia in 45.99. Scotty Buff was fourth for Florida in 46.04. Though the second fastest time of the night session came from the B final, where Ruard van Renen of Georgia atoned for a weak morning swim by going 45.37, beating all but Marshall.
Women’s 800 freestyle relay
The reigning NCAA champions in the 800 free relay don’t look eager to step aside from that title. Florida’s Bella Sims, Julie Brousseau, Emma Weyant and Micayla Cronk went 6:56.63, tying the third fastest time in program history and an NCAA A cut. It’s well shy of the 6:48.59 that the Gators used to win the NCAA title last year, with Isabel Ivey on the second leg in place of Brousseau. Cronk was the only one of the three holdovers whose split Thursday was close to last year’s, going 1:43.10 (she was 1:43.02 at NCAAs). Weyant was 1:44.32, Sims 1:43.20 off the front.
Cronk needed all of that speed to hold off Georgia, which also notched an A cut of 6:56.92. Marie Landreneau, Dune Coetzee, Rachel Stege and Ieva Maluka composed the squad, with Stege dropping a 1:42.84 to make matters mighty interesting. Georgia was sixth at NCAAs last year, though only Coetzee remains from that team.
Men’s 800 freestyle relay
Florida picked up another win and another A cut, going 6:12.85 with Alex Painter, Josh Liendo, Julian Smith and Jake Mitchell. Liendo (1:31.42) and Smith (1:32.32) shined again.
Georgia picked up an A cut in 6:15.39, with Tomas Koski, Jake Magahey (1:31.46), Cooper Cook and Will Gavin. LSU was third in 6:20.38.
