It’s been a strange season for the Georgia women’s swimming and diving team.
The Bulldogs failed to win an SEC title for the first time in six years and as a result, lost their No. 1 ranking to Stanford.
But with one day left at the NCAA Championship meet at Georgia Tech’s McAuley Aquatic Center, Georgia sits in first place on the brink of its seventh national title. The Bulldogs lead with 285 points, but defending champion California is not far behind. The Golden Bears have 267.5 points through the first three days of the meet.
“I think we had some gas in our tank here,” Georgia coach Jack Bauerle said. “It feels pretty good. We’re sort of stunned to be here in some ways to be honest with you. We’re not real deep this year, so a lot of kids are shooting a lot of bullets here. We’re excited to be in this situation.”
The Bulldogs have been able to build upon their lead thanks to record-breaking swims from some of their best performers as well as surprising improvements from the team’s second-tier swimmers over the course of the past three days.
On Friday, Georgia was led by Brittany MacLean, Hali Flickinger and Emily Cameron.
MacLean won the 200 free by breaking her own record in the event and out-touching Louisville’s Mallory Comerfold by a miniscule twelve-hundredths of a second. Her time of one minute, 42.42 seconds gave Georgia 20 points.
After dealing with a hamstring issue and a torn labrum last year, MacLean was able to get healthy her senior season, and it’s shown in her swims.
“This whole year I’ve been grinding to say the least,” MacLean said. “It’s definitely the best training I’ve ever put up. I can say that with confidence. Coming out of conference (meet), I think all of us were a little disappointed. It was hard to be defeated. Most of us were used to winning SECs, and I think that has fueled the fire here (at NCAAs.)”
After MacLean won the 200 free, Flickinger reached over her lane-rope to hug her fellow senior, who had tears running down her face. Flickinger finished in fourth place in the event with a time of 1:43.32 and received 15 points. Meaghan Raab won the B-heat for the Bulldogs with a time of 1:44.62 and added nine points of her own to the total.
Cameron’s third-place finish in the 400-yard individual medley turned out to be a personal-best time for the junior. She finished with a time of 4:03.66 and earned 16 points for the Bulldogs. Annie Zhu finished 14th in the 400 IM to chip in with three points.
Despite adding time in the 100 butterfly, Kylie Stewart finished in eighth place with a time of 51.68. Stewart earned 11 points in the race for the Bulldogs.
Olivia Smoliga’s swim in the 100 backstroke was a bittersweet one. Smoliga wound up swimming in the B-final since she missed the cut for the A-final at the preliminary races Friday morning. However, Smoliga won the B-final with a time of 50.58, good for second fastest in either heat. But since she swam it in the slower heat, Smoliga placed ninth and earned only nine points as opposed to second place’s 17 points.
On the diving side, sophomore Oliva Ball finished 15th in the 3-meter diving event with a score of 276.00. Ball’s finish earned the Bulldogs two points.
In the last event of the day, the 200 medley relay, the Georgia relay consisting of Smoliga, Cameron, Stewart and Raab placed seventh with a time of 1:36.48. Relay events have more available points, so the Bulldogs were awarded 24 points.
Bauerle, who has won all of the Georgia women’s six national titles, knows what it takes to finish this meet strong.
“It’s going to take great swims,” Bauerle said. “They’re going to have to be better than they are already. We’ve almost had a perfect meet. We’ll just line it up and do our best. I know one thing, they’ll be excited. This is going to be pretty wild.”
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