Photo Credit: Peter H. Bick
ATHENS – The Georgia swimming and diving teams swept SEC rival Florida on Friday night, with the Bulldog men posting a 174.5-122.5 win and the Bulldog ladies extending their home win streak to 92 dual meets with a 176-119 victory.
The Georgia women kicked off the meet with their A and B 200 medley relay teams finishing only .07 apart to take first and second. Olivia Smoliga, Emily Cameron, Kylie Stewart and Chantal Van Landeghem just out-touched Meaghan Raab, Annie Zhu, Lauren Harrington and Madeline Locus, 1:40.90 to 1:40.97. Florida finished third with Sinead Russell, Lindsey McKnight, Alyssa Yambor-Maul and Natalie Hinds posting a 1:41.48.
On the men’s side, Georgia’s A team of Taylor Dale, Nicolas Fink, Pace Clark and Michael Trice finished comfortably ahead of Florida’s Christian-Paul Homer, Erik Kahr, Caeleb Dressel and Corey Main (1:28.97).
Five different Georgia swimmers and one diver won multiple events to lead the Bulldogs. Amber McDermott won the first individual event of the day, the 1000 free, in 9:43.00, then followed that up with a win in the 500 free later in the meet at 4:46.79. Freshman Kylie Stewart swept the backstroke events on the women’s side, touching in 53.42 in the 100 and 1:55.54 in the 200.
Annie Zhu and Emily Cameron picked up huge points for Georgia by finishing 1-2 in both breaststroke events. Zhu swam times of 1:02.98 and 2:15.16, while Cameron posted a 1:03.20 and 2:16.17. Chase Kalisz added two wins in the 200 fly (1:45.64) and 200 IM (1:47.13), while Tynan Stewart got to the wall first in the 200 back (1:45.17) and 100 fly (47.91). Ian Forlini swept both men’s diving events, scoring 349.05 points to win the 1-meter and 374.10 points to win the 3-meter.
Florida’s Natalie Hinds and Caeleb Dressel led the way for the Gators with two individual wins each in the sprint freestyle events, while Lindsey McKnight also contributed two wins. Hinds got to the wall first in the 50 free (22.55) and 100 free (49.37), out-racing Georgia’s Madeline Locus in both events as Locus finished second in 22.64 and 50.07. Meanwhile, Dressel earned wins in the 50 free (20.06) and 100 free (44.35). McKnight claimed the 200 free (1:47.95) and 200 IM (2:01.43).
Georgia also got wins from Kevin Litherland (1000 free, 9:05.26), Matias Koski (200 free, 1:36.78), Taylor Dale (100 back, 47.43), Hali Flickinger (200 fly, 1:57.20) and Lauren Harrington (100 fly, 54.13). Olivia Ball topped the women’s 1-meter by less than two-tenths of a point with a score of 334.95.
Matt Elliott (100 breast, 54.42), Dan Wallace (500 free, 4:25.84) and Kahlia Warner (1-meter diving, 304.88) also won events for Florida.
Florida closed out the meet with wins in the 400 free relay, with Georgia’s relays swimming exhibition. Sinead Russell, Jessica Theilmann and Jordan Smith topped the women’s race in 3:29.45, while Corey Main, Mark Szaranek, Pawel Werner and Dan Wallace swam away with the men’s win in 3:00.39.