ATLANTA – Auburn's women's swimming and diving team posted six top-3 three finishes and 11 top-10 finishes while the men had three top-3 finishes and eight top-10 finishes on the final day of the Georgia Tech Fall Invitational at the McAuley Aquatics Center in Atlanta.
Emily Hetzer got the final session off with an all-time swim in the mile, clocking a 16:05.48 to finish third. Hetzer's time, which is now the fourth-fastest in the nation, makes her the seventh-fastest performer with the 19th-fastest performance in school history. Her split at the 1000 mark of 9:43.54 was a personal-best and also moved her up to sixth in school history in that event.
"Emily swam really tough all weekend and performance beyond admirably for a freshman. She really performed like a junior or senior," Auburn head coach Gary Taylor said. "That's a performance (time) that has always made NCAAs."
Auburn went 1-2 in the 200 back with Erin Falconer taking second in 1:53.56 and Sonnele Oeztuerk touching in 1:54.18 to take third. For Falconer, it represented the fifth-fastest performance of her career in the event, giving her five of the top 25 performances in school history.
"Erin had a tough, gritty meet with a lot of swims and lots of fantastic performances for her team," Taylor said.
One event later it was Claire Fisch earning her second individual victory of the invitational, blistering a 48.37 100 free to win the event by .39 seconds over second place. It too was an all-time performance as it was not only a personal-best for the junior transfer but it also ranked her seventh in school history. Aly Tetzloff was four spots behind her with a 49.12 and Julie Meynen finished seventh (49.29).
"Claire continues to perform at a really high level," Taylor said. "She has great energy, is so positive and she swims really tough. It was awesome to see her win in a career performance."
Bailey Nero closed out the individual podium finishes with a runner-up finish in the 200 fly, touching in 1:56.57. Jewels Harris finished eighth in 2:00.25.
"Bailey had a lot of swims and performed really well throughout the meet," Taylor said.
Carly Cummings was Auburn's top finisher in the 200 breast, clocking a 2:14.47 to finish 10th in the finals after touching in 2:13.93 in prelims.
The 400 free relay closed out the invitational with a national-best 3:13.75, leading the race from start to finish. Tetzloff led off in 48.58 and was followed by Fisch's event-best 47.94 split. Meynen's 48.58 and Falconer's 48.65 helped Auburn to a three-and-a-half second win in the race.
Josh Dannhauser recorded the best finish of any Auburn men's swimmer with his runner-up showing in the 1650 free. The South African's time of 15.00.59 was the second-best mile of his career and the eighth-fastest performance in school history.
"Josh put in a really tough mile and swam with a lot of heart over the back 500," Taylor said.
Santiago Grassi placed fifth in the 200 fly in 1:45.09, which places him among the 16-fastest nationally, while Foster Ballard was eighth in 1:46.60.
"I'm really proud of Foster and Santi, both swimming considerably faster tonight than they did in the morning," Taylor said.
Spencer Rowe (1:58.71) and Tommy Brewer (1:58.76) finished eighth and ninth, respectively, in the 200 breast.
Brewer, Liam McCloskey, Grassi and Christian Sztolcman closed out the night with a sixth-place finish in the 400 free relay (2:56.48).
The men closed out the meet with a sixth-place finish in the 400 free relay in 2:56.48. Brewer led off in 44.34 and was followed by McCloskey's 43.44. Grassi took over for the third leg and swam a 44.58 before Christian Sztolcman anchored in 44.12.
"After a long, long weekend, to see the athletes get up on the 400 free relays on both the men's and women's side and perform at a high level, many achieving season- and lifetime-best splits, was really exciting to me," Taylor said. "There was a lot of energy and enthusiasm from our team and you really saw the character come out as they stepped up for one another."
The Auburn women finished the 10-team invitational with a second-place team finish, scoring 886.5points, while the men finished sixth, scoring 540.5 points.
DIVING RECAP
Conner Pruitt and Scott Lazeroff took the top two spot in the platform competition, with Pruitt scoring a 381.90 and Lazeroff a 367.65. It was the second event win for the freshman Pruitt, who earlier won the 3-meter competition during the Virginia dual meet. Justin Checchin finished 13th with a 238.85.
"Another great performance by Conner to take the win," diving coach Jeff Shaffer said. "He was really solid on all his finishes. Scott just missed an entry or two to end up second. That's a strong performance for us. Justin was able to get in his first platform list of the season and he was consistent, we just need to work on finishing dives."
The win capped off a week where Pruitt finished top-8 on all three boards after taking eighth on each springboard.
"Conner really stood out throughout the weekend," Shaffer said. "A lot of coaches commented to me on his potential, what he's doing and what a great future he has. His success is directly related to his hard work and willingness to get better and make corrections every day at practice."
Alison Maillard finished the invitational with her third top-9 finish of the week, taking fourth on the platform with a 244.85. She had previously finished eighth on the 1-meter and ninth on the 3-meter.
"Alison did a solid list," Shaffer said. "There is room for improvement because when we get closer to SECs she will do a front three-and-a-half pike on 10 versus a front two-and-a-half pike on five meter.
"It was a really strong day for us and I'm really pleased with how we stepped up and competed in our first platform competition of the season," Shaffer said.
WHAT'S NEXT
After taking a break for Thanksgiving, the teams return to dual meet action on Friday, Dec. 7, at Alabama.
Tigers close out Georgia Tech Invite with nine top-3 finishes
