Brittany MacLean’s individual title highlighted Georgia’s efforts during the NCAA Championships on Friday at the McAuley Aquatic Center on the Georgia Tech campus.
Heading into the final day of competition, Georgia maintained its lead with 285 points. California remains in second with 267.5 points, trailed by Stanford (265), Texas A&M (201.5) and Virginia (196).
“We are excited to be in this situation,” Georgia head coach Jack Bauerle said. “There are a lot of good teams here but we aren’t going to leave anything on the table tomorrow. Our women are going to swim with a lot of intensity.”
MacLean won her first individual title of the meet, claiming the 200 freestyle in 1:42.42. The time was also a pool record, eclipsing teammate Hali Flickinger’s record of 1:42.80 set during Wednesday’s 800 freestyle relay. Flickinger followed closely behind, finishing fourth in 1:43.32. Meaghan Raab won the consolation final in 1:44.62.
“I just wanted to win this for my team,” MacLean said. “They are all I care about right now. If you would have told me a year ago that I would have won the 200 freestyle at NCAAs, I probably would have laughed.”
Emily Cameron and Annie Zhu both improved upon their prelim performances in the 400 individual medley, finishing third and 14th, respectively. Cameron reached the wall in 4:03.66 and Zhu stopped the clock in 4:08.48.
Kylie Stewart earned eighth in the 100 butterfly in 51.68 and bettered her third place time in the Georgia record books.
Olivia Smoliga bettered her school record in the 100 backstroke, winning the consolation final in 50.58. Stewart finished 15th in 51.67.
Olivia Ball recorded a 15th place finishing in the 3-meter springboard with a total of 276.00 points.
The 200-medley relay comprised of Smoliga, Cameron, Stewart and Raab claimed seventh place in 1:36.48.
The NCAAs will conclude on Saturday with the 200 backstroke, the 100 freestyle, the 200 breaststroke, the 200 butterfly, the 1,650 freestyle, the platform and the 400 freestyle relay. Live results from can be found RamblinWreck.com. Both prelims and finals will be shown on ESPN3.