The University of Georgia women’s swimmers and divers, perennial national title contenders, will rely heavily on three seniors at the Women’s Swimming and Diving championships, which run Wednesday through Saturday at Georgia Tech’s McAuley Aquatic Center.
The Bulldogs, who recently stumbled to a third-place finish in the SEC championships, will seek to win their third national title over the past four seasons.
“We’re a small, but mighty class,” senior Brittany MacLean said. “There’s only three of us, but all of us have been top two or three at NCAAs, so that’s a pretty powerhouse class.”
The Bulldogs have won six NCAA titles, including the 2013 and 2014 crowns, and have been the national runner-up eight times. In the past 17 seasons, Georgia has been first or second at the NCAAs 14 times. Georgia Tech also hosted the NCAA Swimming and Diving championships in 2006.
Some of the other title contenders include California, Stanford and Texas A&M. California, who has 12 swimmers qualified, is the defending champion. Stanford finished third last season and Texas A&M won the SEC title, snapping Georgia’s string of six consecutive conference titles.
Stanford’s list of qualifiers includes Nicole Stafford, of the Westminster Schools.
MacLean is joined by fellow seniors Annie Zhu and Hali Flickinger as leaders. Overall, Georgia has a total of 13 swimmers and one diver competing.
“Annie, Flick, Brittany, they just get it,” coach Jack Bauerle said. “I never have to say that much to them. I’ve had very few meetings to talk about who we are and what we are. Basically, they’re led by three seniors who all set very good examples.”
MacLean, who battled hamstring and a torn labrum as a junior, could add to her profile as one of Georgia’s career greats. She’s hoping to recapture her stellar showing from 2014, when she won NCAA titles in the 500 and 1,650-meter freestyle while leading the Bulldogs to the national title.
MacLean, a Canadian, is looking to have a strong performance in her final tournament before heading off to Toronto to take part in her Olympic trials.
“I would love to (beat my sophomore year records),” MacLean said. “The big thing is I can’t say I’m going to win a few events, because I don’t know how the others are going to do. That was the thing my sophomore year: Those times were considered wins. This year, those times will not win, so I definitely need to be (much) better than that if I want to compete for a national title, but I haven’t taken myself out of the race.
“We have (14) girls ready to battle, and I think every one of them can improve on their performance from SECs.”
The trio has been here for what has been a spectacular run for the Bulldogs. In that, they are also serving as mentors for the younger members of the team, which is something that has been passed down under Bauerle.
“Whenever they have any questions,” Zhu said, “whether it be swimming-related or school-related or personal, I’m always there to make sure that I can give them all the answers that I can.
“I know as a freshman, when I was younger, I had a lot of questions that couldn’t be answered, and I hope I was able to provide (the answers) to them. Just make sure they don’t freak out during the competitions, because it is frightening and be able to give them pointers along the way.”
The third place finish in the SEC tournament was a shocker and snapped the Bulldogs’ string of sixth consecutive conference titled. Zhu said they are that stumbling block as motivation.
MacLean said that the team’s main goal is “for us to be one of the better teams. I’m not going to say we’re going to win, but I want to see us in a top three finish.”
Bauerle said, “We need to have almost a perfect meet to make it interesting.”
Other Georgia swimmers include Emily Cameron, Kimberlee John-Williams, Olivia Smoliga, Rachel Zilinskas, Olivia Ball, Megan Kingsley, Stephanie Peters, Meaghan Raab, Kylie Stewart, Caitlin Casazza and Shauna Lee.
The Grady Sports Bureau is part of the sports media program at the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.
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