Oct. 13, 2017
One day into the competition season and Auburn's swimming and diving coaching staff has seen a lot of positives.
Halfway through a two day, double dual meet with Wisconsin and Tennessee, the Auburn women are winning both meets while the men are ahead of Wisconsin but trail Tennessee.
"I thought we had a great first day of competition," head coach Brett Hawke said. "Our relays were really strong, which is good as we will lean on them heavily throughout the year. I'm looking forward to some strong racing tomorrow."
In total, Auburn won nine events on Friday, five by the women and four by the men.
Hugo Gonzalez, a freshman from Spain, picked up a pair of wins, taking down the field in both the 200 IM (1:47.15) and the 200 back (1:45.53). Teammate Petter Fredriksson, a sophomore, was second in the 200 back (1:47.93).
Gonzalez also led off Auburn's winning 400 medley relay with a 47.45 split, the fastest leadoff split by over two seconds. He was followed by Tommy Brewer in the breaststroke (55.50), Luis Martinez in the fly (46.93) and Peter Holoda in the free (43.63) as Auburn went 3:13.51 to out-touch Tennessee's top squad and the runner-up by over two seconds.
Sophomore Julie Meynen, who went undefeated in the 100 free during dual meets as a freshman, kept her streak alive on Friday, winning the event in 49.46.
Auburn went 1-2 in the men's 100 free with Holoda (44.16) and junior Zach Apple (44.36) taking the top two spots. Both sprinters are coming off of 2017 FINA World Championship appearances for their native Hungary and USA, respectively. Apple also took second in the 50 free in 20.21.
Zoe Thatcher led off the individual races with a win in the 1000 free, touching in 10:00.90.
Ashton Ellzey also picked up an individual win, taking home top honors in the 50 free in 22.92.
Auburn's women swept Friday's relays winning the 400 medley relay in 3:38.74 and the 200 free relay in 1:31.68. Aly Tetzloff (53.86), Breanna Roman (1:02.66), Haley Black (53.60) and Meynen (48.62) teamed up on the medley relay while it was Meynen (23.11), Tetzloff (22.74), Ellzey (22.45) and Roby Clevenger (23.38) knocking off the field in the 200 free relay.
In the diving well, Alison Maillard was Auburn's top finisher in the women's 1-meter competition with a second-place 278.20 while Pete Turnham (336.15) and Logan Andrews (331.55) finished third and fourth, respectively, on the 3-meter. All three scores were Zone Diving qualifying scores.
"Overall it was a solid day for us with three zone scores," diving coach Jeff Shaffer said. "We are using these early meets to find out a little about ourselves, find what areas we are weak in and apply those corrections."
The meet concludes on Saturday beginning at 9:30 a.m. Events to be contested are: 200 medley relay, 200 free, 400 IM, men's 1-meter, 100 fly, 100 back, 500 free, women's 3-meter, 100 breast and 400 free relay.
Team Scores After Day One
Men
Auburn 88
Tennessee 98
Auburn 133
Wisconsin 53
Women
Auburn 106
Tennessee 80
Auburn 116
Wisconsin 69