ATLANTA – It was a busy day for Auburn's Erin Falconer and Bailey Nero as action continued at the Georgia Tech Fall Invitational on Friday at the McAuley Aquatic Center in Atlanta.
Falconer, a senior, brought home a second- and fourth-place individually and was on both the winning 800 free relay and the fourth-place 200 medley relay. For her classmate Nero, it was a pair of wins in B Finals that got the deck buzzing with excitement.
Nero may have had the toughest task of all Auburn swimmers, swimming and winning the B Final of both the 400 IM and the 100 fly, which were less than 30 minutes apart from each other.
Winning the 400 IM B Final in 4:10.43, currently the seventh-fastest 400 IM in the country, Nero joined her second Auburn Top 10 Performers list of the week, checking in at seventh. She did that out of lane 6. Twenty-seven minutes later she was in Lane 1 for the 100 fly final, where she went 53.34 to out-touch the runner-up by .50 seconds.
"Bailey was a little disappointed with this morning but showed a lot of grit in coming back tonight and preparing herself and getting ready to perform, and that she did," Auburn head coach Gary Taylor said.
Though more spread out, Falconer's night was no easier. After leading off the fourth-place 200 medley relay (1:38.45) with a 24.86 split, she waited through both of Nero's events before taking second in the 200 free in 1:45.93. Two events and 29 minutes later it was a fourth-place finish in the 100 back in 53.03.
Following a 27-minute break, Falconer was back in the water, swimming the second leg for the winning 800 free relay, which just happened to post the second-fastest time in the country at 7:08.39. Emily Hetzer led off in 1:47.05 followed by Falconer's leg of 1:46.06, which was the fastest leg of the night across all 800 free relay participants. Aly Tetzloff then went 1:48.08 before Jessica Merritt brought it home in 1:47.18 as Auburn out-touched Florida by .30 seconds.
"It was a tough, hard-fought night for Erin," Taylor said. "She had some really strong performances swimming three 200 freestyles today and two 100 backstrokes. It's a lot of fun to see her toughness and grit."
Hetzer also had a busy evening as she took 13th in the 400 IM (4:16.93) and finished fourth in the 200 free (1:46.72) two events later.
"Emily Hetzer continues to have an outstanding meet. She had a really tough event list today and she performed well," Taylor said.
Jewels Harris (53.20) and Tetzloff (53.27) finished 4-5 in the 100 fly and Sonnele Oeztuerk won the 100 back B Final in 54.12.
"We had a lot of great performances tonight," Auburn head coach Gary Taylor said. "There were a number of women that stepped up, got night swims and then raced hard and performed well tonight. The women have had a really good meet up to this point and I look forward to that continuing tomorrow."
For the men, Santiago Grassi finished fifth in a loaded field in the 100 fly, which featured three of the five fastest men in the country to date. Grassi's 46.70 out of lane 2 makes him the seventh-fastest performer in the country. He was just four places ahead of Liam McCloskey, who finished ninth in 48.99.
Tommy Brewer's 54.25 in the 100 breast and David Crossland's 48.04 in the 100 back were both good enough for seventh-place finishes. Christian Ginieczki finished 21st (48.97) in the 100 back.
"We had some people come back in and get faster," Taylor said. "I thought Santi Grassi in the 100 fly, David Crossland and Christian Ginezcki in the 100 back provided us with some good, strong performances."
Auburn's 200 medley relay team of Crossland, Brewer, McCloskey and Grassi touched in 1:27.75 to finish sixth, which puts them just inside the top 16 nationally.
"Tommy Brewer continues to be a leader for us," Taylor said. "He split well for us on the relay and then came back and had his season-best in the 100 breaststroke."
Spencer Rowen (54.87) and Foster Ballard (48.14) each earned 14th-place finishes in the 100 breast and 100 fly, respectively.
"Across the board the men were very similar. They gave themselves opportunities to compete tonight and I thought they performed well and swam tough," Taylor said.
DIVING RECAP
Scott Lazeroff scored a career-best 388.80 to finish third in the 24-man 3-meter competition. The senior had scored a 366.75 in prelims and then upped it by over 22 points on his second list. That topped his previous best of 387.68 from the Florida dual meet in 2016. Conner Pruitt was eight with a 345.55 after qualifying with a 314.75 while Justin Checchin had a season-best 269.15 to finish 19th.
"All three divers were consistent in prelims," Auburn diving coach Jeff Shaffer said. "Justin improved his score from Tennessee, Scott was much better today than yesterday and Conner ended up eighth but he did a front three-and-a-half pike for about 72 points and a reverse one-and-a-half with two-and-a-half twists for nearly 70 points, so that was very positive. For a freshman it's just a process of being in a loud, raucous environment and having to step up and compete. The process and experience should do them all well as we head towards the championship part of the season."
A night after finishing ninth on the 3-meter, Alison Maillard took eighth on the 1-meter with a 288.15. The junior had qualified first in prelims with a 295.35, which would have placed fifth in finals.
"Alison really did a better job (in finals) with the exception of one dive, her best dive, a front two-and-a-half pike, and she over-rotated," Shaffer said. "She gave up about 20 points or she could have possibly come home with the win. Her execution on her back and reverse one-and-a-halves were better.
"I was very pleased with how we stepped up and competed today versus yesterday," Shaffer said. "We made a big step towards what we are capable of doing."
WHAT'S NEXT
Day 3 of the Georgia Tech Fall Invitational gets underway at 9 am CT on Saturday, with finals being contested at 4:30 pm. Swimming events scheduled for Saturday are the 1650 free, 200 back, 100 free, 200 breast, 200 fly and 400 free relay. In diving both the men and women will compete on the platform.
Live stats are available through auburntigers.com and all sessions will also be streamed live on ESPN3.
Saturday, Nov. 17
Prelims: http://www.espn.com/watch/_/id/3453186/georgia-tech-invitational
Finals: http://www.espn.com/watch/_/id/3453180/georgia-tech-invitational
Busy day with big results for Auburn S&D on Friday
