Three in a row.
That’s the goal for the Georgia women’s swimming and diving team, which headed to Greensboro, N.C., to defend the last two national championships. The competition begins at 11 a.m Thursday.
While the Lady Bulldogs are expected to again finish among the best in the country, taking the title this time would appear to be a longshot.
“Yeah, Cal is a heavy favorite, almost 140-point favorite in this meet,” said Georgia coach Jack Bauerle, whose team beat the Bears by about 100 points last year. “They’re really good and we’re pretty good. Stanford is good and so is Southern Cal and Florida. There are a lot of good team.”
Georgia simply lost too much talent off last year’s squad to remain on top. Shannon Vreeland, an Olympic gold medalist, and Melanie Margalis graduated as two of the Bulldogs’ greatest swimmers of all time.
But Georgia is still Georgia, and the Bulldogs headed to Greensboro with 17 swimmers and one diver, including several that claimed gold medals last year in Indianapolis. Brittany MacLean won the 500 and 1,650 freestyle titles and Olivia Smoliga claimed the 50 freestyle crown. Jordan Mattern, Amber McDermott, Chantal Van Landeghem and MacLean were also victorious in relays.
“It’s a three-day meet and anything can happen,” Bauerle said. “We probably need about five interceptions or something like that but, you know, things happen. You can make up a certain amount and out-swim people. We’ve had a real good history of performing exceedingly well at this meet. That’s been the heart and soul of our program.”
It’s not like Georgia fell off the swimming map. The Lady Dogs, who have won six national championships overall, just won their sixth consecutive SEC title. In 13 of the last 19 seasons, the Lady Bulldogs have finished first or second at the national meet 13 times. Over the last 18 years they’ve won either an NCAA or SEC title every year in all but three years.
“We’ve been on a pretty amazing run,” Bauerle said. “We’re proud of the NCAA championships but the thing we’re proudest of is we’re really good all the time.”
