Georgia’s women’s team continued to flex its muscles with another record-setting night and the Bulldogs’ men moved up to third in their side of the competition as the SEC Swimming and Diving Championships continued Wednesday at UGA’s Ramsey Student Center.
The No. 3-ranked Lady Bulldogs extended their first-place lead to 156 points ahead of second-place Florida with a total score of 577. The No. 14 Bulldogs moved from up to third from seventh and trail Auburn (574) and Florida (451.5) with 414 points.
The Lady Bulldogs opened the night with a sweep in the 500-yard freestyle as Brittany MacLean set a new SEC Championship and Gabrielsen Natatorium record with her NCAA automatic qualifying time of 4:34.63. Shannon Vreeland and Amber McDermott took silver and bronze.
Melanie Margalis took gold in the 200 individual medley with a time of 1:52.87, shattering her previous Georgia record by nearly two seconds. Margalis also set new SEC Championship and Gabrielsen Natatorium records.
Freshman Olivia Smoliga made UGA history when she won the 50 freestyle and school record time of 21.54. Maddie Locus took silver in 21.67 and the duo now holds the first and third fastest times in the Georgia record books.
The Lady Bulldogs ended the night with a gold medal in the 200 freestyle relay behind the team Smoliga, Locus, Graber and Van Landeghem. Their time of 1:27.09 represented yet another Gabrielsen Natatorium record.
“This meet is special,” said Harvey Humphries, UGA’s senior associate head coach, who’s filling in for Jack Bauerle during competition. “The attitude the swimmers have and how much they want to race is the difference. Every one of the girls knows that they’re part of something special this year, and they want to keep it going.”
The men’s team moved up despite seeing defending SEC 200 individual champion Chase Kalisz slip to third in the event. The sophomore managed to take the bronze with a time of 1:42.53. He won it last year in 1:43.04. Florida went 1-2 behind Sebastian Rousseau (1:42.22) and Marcin Cieslak (1:42.34).
Round 3 of the meet continues Thursday with the 400 individual medley, 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle and 3-meter diving.
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