Dec. 4, 2008
ATLANTA - The Auburn men and women took to the pool Thursday as the 2008 ConocoPhillips USA Swimming Short Course National Championships commenced at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center in Atlanta, Ga.
During the evening events, the Auburn women picked up seven NCAA B cuts while the men's team gathered four NCAA provisional cuts.
For the women, it was junior Ava Ohlgren and freshman Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace who found three B cuts each.
Starting the finals for the night, Ohlgren and Vanderpool-Wallace, along with junior Melissa Marik and sophomore Caitlin Geary, found their first B cut of the night as they clocked a time of 1:30.12 to take second place in the 200 freestyle relay, coming in under the old meet record.
Finding a third-place finish in the 200 individual medley, Ohlgren clocked in at 1:57.23 and cleared another B standard by more than three seconds. Also finding a B cut in the race was Geary, who won the C heat in a time of 1:59.93, finishing 17th overall.
In the 50 freestyle, Vanderpool-Wallace got her second B cut of the night as she took fourth place in 22.67 seconds. It was the second time for Vanderpool-Wallace to clear the B standard as she touched in with a 22.63 relay leadoff in the 200 free relay. She was followed to the wall by Marik, who finished with a time of 22.82.
In the final race of the night, the women found their last B cut of the session as Marik, Micah Lawrence, Ohlgren, and Vanderpool-Wallace took third in the 400 medley relay in 3:39.27.
During the women's 500 free, junior Maggie Bird took third, touching with a time of 4:40.91 while Geary came in seventh at 4:46.74. Both Bird and Geary picked up B cut times in the race.
In the men's competition, Auburn was led by junior and 2008 Olympian Gideon Louw, who recorded three B cut times for himself during the night.
Finishing third in the men's 200 freestyle relay, Karl Krug, Louw, Kohlton Norys and Steve Scheren finished with a time of 1:19.32, which came in under the old championship record and gave the relay team a B cut for the NCAA championships.
The 50 free was host to several Auburn Olympians as former Tigers George Bovell and Alexei Puninski took fourth (19.15) and sixth (19.34) places, respectively. Swimming for Auburn in the race was Louw, who finished with his second B cut of the night in 19.75 seconds.
In the last race of day one, Norys, Michael Silva, Jordan Anderson and Louw formed Auburn's relay team in the 400 medley relay, taking second place. Their time of 3:12.30 gave the men another NCAA B cut for the evening.
In other races during the meet's first finals session, former Auburn Tiger and 2008 Olympian Eric Shanteau took a second place finish in the 200 individual medley as he touched in 1:42.59. Behind Shanteau was sophomore Andrew Mitchell in 1:48.07.
Junior Will Dove took seventh in the 500 freestyle during the men's A-final, coming to the wall in 4:26.72. In the B-final, sophomore Robert Looney finished third in 4:24.46, also hitting the NCAA B standard.
After finishing day one competition with eleven total NCAA B cuts, the Auburn men and women will continue swimming Friday morning with the prelims will beginning at 9:30 a.m. ET, followed by finals at 6 p.m. ET. The races to be swum tomorrow will be the 200 medley relay, 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast, 100 back and 800 free relay. All events are at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center.
For more information, go to www.USASwimming.org. Full results can be found at www.OmegaTiming.com.