Dec. 3, 2017
Hugo Gonzalez came to swim this weekend.
The freshman phenom took down not one, not two, but three of Auburn's swimming records during this weekend's Georgia Invitational in Athens, Ga., knocking off the program's 200 IM mark on Friday, the 400 IM mark on Saturday and the 200 backstroke on Sunday.
All in a weekend's of untapered and unshaved work.
Gonzalez went a national-best 1:39.05 in the finals of the 200 back Sunday afternoon to break Pascal Wollach's school record of 1:39.65 that stood since the 2009 NCAA Championships. That was on the heels of his 200 IM mark of 1:42.02 and 400 IM time of 3:39.28, which also is the fastest in the nation thus far.
"Hugo is a young man with a very bright future and I'm glad he's on our team," Auburn head coach Brett Hawke said. "Incredible weekend of racing for him with three school records and posting top times in the country. He is really inspiring the guys around him to step up and get better."
Teammate Petter Fredriksson finished three spots behind Gonzalez in the 200 back in 1:41.60, which also puts him in the top 10 nationally.
Swimming the 100 free, Peter Holoda went 42.44 to finish third while Zach Apple was eighth in 43.01.
Auburn closed out the swimming portion of the three-day invitational with a runner-up finish in the 400 free relay in a NCAA Automatic time of 2:51.04. Holoda matched his individual 100 free time of 42.44 in leading off before turning things over to Apple (42.53), Liam McCloskey (42.97) and Gonzalez, who anchored in 43.10, second-fastest in the field.
Scott Lazeroff picked up the title in the platform competition with a 384.15, topping second place by over 46 points.
Pete Turnham was fourth on the platform (311.55) and Logan Andrews seventh with a personal-best 266.80.
Alison Maillard finished sixth (230.25) and Erin Norton ninth (207.95) in the women's platform competition.
For the weekend, Auburn divers won three of six events as Turnham (1-meter) and Maillard (3-meter) each picked up individual wins on Saturday as well.
"I was proud of the kids taking three of six (diving) events," diving coach Jeff Shaffer said. "We have some work to do in regards to our form and cleaning up our entries to the water but overall I was very pleased with the effort everyone gave.
"We were able to experiment and introduce a couple of new dives," Shaffer continued. "It was nice to put those in a meet where the outcome is all about learning and getting better and not the pressure of making finals at SECs."
Auburn finished the three-day men's competition in fourth place with 664 points. California took first (1014 pts), Michigan was second (915), host Georgia was third (674) and Virginia was fifth (378).
The swimming team will take a break from competition until Jan. 8 when both the men and women travel to Texas.
Auburn's divers will next compete at the Auburn Diving Invitational, Dec. 17-19, at the Martin Aquatics Center. Other teams expected to compete are LSU, Tennessee, Florida, South Carolina and Alabama.
