Armed with 13 swimmers and one diver, the Georgia women swimming and diving team will compete this week in Atlanta in the NCAA Championships and are chasing a seventh national title.
 
 
The NCAAs will take place Wednesday through Saturday at the McAuley Aquatic Center on the Georgia Tech campus. The meet will begin Wednesday at 6 p.m. with the 800 freestyle relay finals. Prelims for the remaining days will be at 10 a.m., followed by finals at 6 p.m.
 
 
The Lady Bulldogs have won six NCAA titles, including the 2013 and 2014 crowns, and have been the national runner-up eight times. In the last 17 seasons, Georgia has been first or second at the NCAAs 14 times.
 
 
Georgia will use a lineup of seniors Hali Flickinger, Brittany MacLean and Annie Zhu; juniors Emily Cameron, Kimberlee John-Williams, Olivia Smoliga and Rachel Zilinskas; sophomores Olivia Ball, Megan Kingsley, Stephanie Peters, Meaghan Raab and Kylie Stewart; and freshmen Caitlin Casazza and Shauna Lee.
 
 
“This is a rugged meet and we all know that going in,” Georgia head coach Jack Bauerle said. “We have prepared our young ladies for this ruggedness with our training sessions, our regular-season schedule and at the SEC Championships. All I ever ask of our kids is to stand up and compete hard and give everything they have. We still have plenty of gas left in the tank. They know what a special opportunity it is to contend for a national championship.”
 
 
ESPN3 will stream live the championship finals sessions Friday and Saturday. Tape delayed coverage of the championships will be broadcast on ESPNU at 7 p.m. March 29 for the women’s championships and at 7:30 p.m. April 6 for the men’s championships. All sessions not streamed by ESPN will be shown live on RamblinWreck.com.
 
 
Since the inception of the NCAAs in 1982 for women’s swimming and diving, the Lady Bulldogs have won six national titles: 1999, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2013 and 2014. Only Stanford (eight) and Texas (seven) have more.
 
 
Georgia boasts two past NCAA champions at this year’s meet. At the 2014 NCAAs, MacLean won the 500 and 1,650 freestyle titles and Smoliga claimed the 50 freestyle crown. MacLean also has been on a victorious relay. Chantal Van Landeghem, who is redshirting this season to train with Canada for the Olympics, was on a winning relay in 2013. All-time, the Lady Bulldogs have accumulated 74 NCAA titles (50 individuals and 24 relays).