[su_spacer size=”40″] The Lady Bulldogs, who entered as the two-time defending national champions, rolled up 452 points in the three-day meet, eclipsed only by California’s 513. In the last 17 years, Georgia has finished first or second at the national meet 14 times.
[su_spacer size=”40″] “I am really proud of this team, especially our seniors,” Georgia coach Jack Bauerle said. “They laid it all on the line every day and never quit battling. We’re not able to walk out with the first-place trophy again, but we are walking out with our heads held high. We have a program that’s relevant year in and year out, and we were in the hunt again. As a coach, you can’t ask for more.”
[su_spacer size=”40″] Stanford followed Georgia in third with 363 points, while Texas A&M was fourth with 231 and Virginia was fifth with 229
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[su_spacer size=”40″] Kylie Stewart came in fifth in the 200-yard backstroke, touching in 1:51.70.
[su_spacer size=”40″] The Lady Bulldogs grabbed more points in the 100-yard freestyle as Chantal Van Landeghem took fifth in 47.48, Maddie Locus came in seventh in 47.88 and Olivia Smoliga placed ninth in 48.23.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Annie Zhu touched in 2:09.17 to wind up 13th in the 200-yard breaststroke.
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[su_spacer size=”40″] The 400-yard freestyle relay of Locus, Smoliga, Harrington and Van Landeghem came in third with a time of 3:12.08.
[su_spacer size=”40″] “I’m really happy,” Bauerle said. “We lost to a great team in Cal. We swam really well and all you want to do is swim as well as you can and that’s what we did. We swam above our seeds and that just shows how good Cal is. We just point to this meet all the time. It’s hard because we have to sacrifice a little bit even at the SECs which is not an easy place to sacrifice with Texas A&M, Florida, Tennessee and a lot of great teams. If you can get by that and leave a little in your tank, that’s the key. Even last year when we won, we swam right to our seeds and this time we swam 80 or 90 points over and still came in second. As long as they swim well and they do the job and are a great team, that’s okay. And they’ve been a great team.”
[su_spacer size=”40″] The highlights show from the NCAAs will air Tuesday, March 31, at 6 p.m., on ESPNU.
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