The Georgia swimming and diving teams will make one final push before the NCAA Championships this weekend as they host their annual Bulldog Invitational Last Chance Meet at Gabrielsen Natatorium.
The meet offers individuals an opportunity to qualify or improve their swimming times or diving standards for the upcoming NCAA Championships.
Saturday and Sunday prelims will begin at 10 a.m., with finals to follow at 5 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday. There is no charge for admission.
The NCAAs for the women will take place March 16-19 and the men will compete March 23-26. Each championship will be held at Georgia Tech.
The Lady Bulldogs already have four women with NCAA automatic qualifying standards (A cuts): Hali Flickinger, Megan Kingsley, Brittany MacLean and Olivia Smoliga. Another 12 Lady Bulldogs have at least one NCAA provisional qualifying time (B cuts).
On the men’s side, Gunnar Bentz, Pace Clark, Taylor Dale, Matias Koski and Jay Litherland already have their A cuts. Fourteen additional Bulldogs boast at least one B cut heading into the weekend.
Swimmers with B cuts can advance to the NCAAs if an event does not have a full allotment of A cuts.
In diving, Olivia Ball, Madison Duvall, Allison Greene, Kelly Thatcher, Crawford Berry, Ian Forlini, Spencer Madanay and Walker Wheeler have Zone qualifying scores already. They will compete March 7-9 in the Zone B Championships at Georgia Tech in an attempt to advance to the NCAAs.
Georgia can bring a maximum of 18 swimmers or 17 swimmers and one or two divers to the NCAAs. A swimmer at the NCAAs may enter a maximum of three individual events and compete on up to four relays. A diver may compete on all three boards once qualified.
Joining Georgia this weekend will be student-athletes from Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Davidson, Duke, Florida, Florida Gulf Coast, Florida State, Gardner Webb, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Louisville, LSU, Nebraska, South Carolina, Southern Illinois, Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Yale.
Both Georgia teams are coming off third-place showings at the Southeastern Conference Championships in Columbia, Mo. The recap of the men’s championship will air on Wednesday at 4 p.m. on ESPNU, followed by the women’s recap at 5:30 p.m.