Nov. 30, 2007
ATLANTA - Current and former Auburn swimmers won nine medals Friday night at the 2007 ConocoPhillips USA Swimming Short Course National Championships, including six NCAA automatic qualifying times and 22 provisional times.
"I thought we had another solid night tonight," said head coach Richard Quick. "Our women's team continues to impress, especially with the performance of freshman Caitlin Geary with her swim in the 200 free and Ava Ohlgren in the 400 IM.
"Our also had some good times, especially for this time of the year and we saw some great performances out of Scott Goodrich, Luke Weniger and Michael Silva."
Competing against some of the top swimmers in the world at a national championship meet, Auburn's swimmers have stepped up to post some of their top times this season.
"It is great to see the team perform like this against this kind of competition," said women's co-head coach Dorsey Tierney-Walker. "You are never quite sure how they are going to respond to a situation like this. It is an important time in their training and some are not where they think they should be, but so far they have responded really well."
Former Tiger and Olympic gold medalist Mark Gangloff led the way with a gold in the 100 breast, winning with a time of 53.05. Senior David Maras trailed Gangloff and won the bronze in 53.71, a NCAA provisional qualifying mark.
Eric Shanteau followed right behind Maras in fourth with a 53.81 while Michael Silva finished seventh in a "B" cut time of 54.71. Jon Hiett also made the finals, winning the C Final in 55.71.
Former Auburn swimmer Shanteau followed up by winning a silver medal in the 400 IM, coming in second in 3:43.30.
Doug Van Wie rounded out the men's individual medalists with a bronze in the 100 back (45.86). Bryan Lundquist and James Wike also swam in the A Final, finishing sixth and eighth, respectively. Lundquist came in at 46.68 while Wike finished in 47.39. Goodrich swam in the C Final, finishing sixth in a "B" cut time of 48.76.
Van Wie made another A Final appearance in the 200 free, finishing sixth in 1:35.65.
In the men's 100 fly, current and former Auburn swimmers dominated the B Final, led by Bousquet with a win in 46.82. Alexei Puninski trailed in fourth with a time of 47.58 and was followed by Luke Weniger (fifth, 47.68) and Jeremy Knowles (sixth, 47.94).
In the C Final, Tyler McGill finished third in 48.18 while Jordan Anderson followed in fourth (48.43). Puninski, Weniger, McGill and Anderson all posted NCAA provisional times in the event.
In the men's 800 freestyle relay, the Auburn team of McGill, Puninski, Will Dove and Robert Looney won the bronze with a time of 6:39.07. The team finished behind the Club Wolverine team of Michael Phelps, Peter Vanderkaay, Davis Tarwater and Chris DeJong that set a new American record with a time of 6:12.43.
Auburn's women won four medals of their own while also posting six NCAA automatic qualifying times.
Former Auburn swimmer and Olympian Margaret Hoelzer led things off with a silver in the 100 back, finishing in 52.30. Sophomore Melissa Marik finished third in the 100 back B Final with an "A" cut time of 54.25 while Julianne McLane finished sixth in a "B" cut time of 55.02.
Freshman Caitlin Geary and senior Emily Kukors tag-teamed the 200 free with Geary leading the pair with a third-place finish. The freshman posted an "A" cut time of 1:44.85 while Kukors finished seventh. Kukors' time of 1:46.56 in the preliminaries is also a NCAA automatic time.
Emile Ewing followed up with a "B" cut time of her own in the 200 free, finishing fourth in the C Final with a time of 1:48.39.
Sophomore Ava Ohlgren followed up her win Thursday in the 200 IM with a third-place finish in the 400 IM, posting an "A" cut time of 4:09.50. Erica Meissner also finished third, her coming in the C Final, with a "B" cut time of 4:19.99.
Senior Kara Denby led Auburn in the 100 breast, finishing eighth with a "B" cut time of 1:02.70. Abby MacGregor followed with a "B" cut of her own, finishing fourth in the B Final in 1:02.56.
Hoelzer led a pack of Auburn swimmers in the 100 fly as she won the B Final in 52.20. Denby trailed in fifth with a time of 53.92 while Dillette finished eighth in 54.38. Ohlgren swam in the C Final, finishing fourth in 54.08. Denby, Dillette and Ohlgren all posted "B" cuts in the event.
The women closed out the night with a bronze finish in the 800 free relay. The team of Ohlgren, Geary, Denby and Kukors finished in 7:09.19, a NCAA automatic qualifying time. Ohlgren's 200 free leadoff time of 1:45.79 is also an "A" cut mark.
Action at the 2007 ConocoPhillips USA Swimming Short Course National Championships resumes at 9:30 a.m., Saturday with preliminaries in the 1650 free, 200 back, 100 free, 200 breast, 200 fly and the 400 free relay. Finals are set to begin at 6 p.m. at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center.
Fans can follow the action with live scoring at www.OmegaTiming.com. A free video Webcast of Saturday night's finals will be available at www.SwimNetwork.com.