The Georgia swimming and diving teams will return to action on Saturday beginning at 11:00 a.m. ET when they entertain Southeastern Conference foe LSU at UGA’s Gabrielsen Natatorium.

 

The first 500 fans will receive a Jack Bauerle bobblehead.

Georgia’s swimmers will be competing for the first time since the UGA Fall Invitational Dec. 1-3. The divers last competed Jan. 3-5 in the Tennessee Diving Invitational.

“We welcome the challenge of racing again in a meet,” said Bauerle, the Tom Cousins Swimming and Diving Head Coach. “We’ve worked hard in practice, but it’s difficult to substitute the way meet conditions feel. We’re facing a quality opponent and we know LSU will push us. That’s how it should be. We’re about a month away from the SECs, so we need meets like this to help us prepare and improve.”

The Lady Bulldogs are ranked No. 6 by CSCAA and No. 9 by CollegeSwimming.com, while the Bulldogs are No. 11 and No. 14, respectively. Neither LSU squad is ranked.

The Lady Bulldogs are 6-0 overall and 1-0 in the SEC. Georgia’s women are undefeated in their last 22 conference meets with a 21-0-1 mark dating back to 2013. The Bulldogs are 5-1 overall and 0-1 in the SEC.

Seniors Meaghan Raab and Kylie Stewart enter Saturday’s meet with two top-10 times nationally each. Raab is No. 6 in the 200 freestyle and No. 10 in the 200 individual medley, while Stewart is No. 8 in the 100 backstroke and No. 10 in the 200 backstroke. Freshman Courtney Harnish is fourth in the 500 freestyle, senior Chelsea Britt stands 10th in the 200 butterfly, and sophomore Veronica Burchill ranks 10th in the 100 butterfly.

For the Bulldogs, senior Jay Litherland is No. 2 in the 400 individual medley, freshman Camden Murphy is No. 8 in the 200 butterfly, and sophomore Javier Acevedo is No. 10 in the 100 backstroke.

Raab (200 freestyle), Harnish (500 freestyle), Murphy (200 butterfly), freshman Olivia Anderson (1,650 freestyle), senior Megan Kingsley (200 butterfly), and sophomore Freida Lim (platform diving) boast SEC-leading efforts.

Senior Gunnar Bentz is expected to make his 2017-2018 dual-meet debut on Saturday. The 2016 Olympian and 15-time All-American has been sidelined since late September following shoulder surgery.

CLICK HERE for the live results of the meet.