ATHENS, Ga. – The Auburn swimming and diving team returned to the pool Friday for its first competitive meet in eight months. The men and women were both defeated by Georgia, but the Tigers were happy to be back and to have the opportunity to compete.
"First and foremost, I'm really appreciative of our medical team and support staff for giving us the opportunity to come over to Athens and compete," head coach Gary Taylor said. "It was great to get both teams back in action. It's been a long time. Most haven't competed since February, and we haven't had a dual meet since last January. So it was nice to get up and running again, which gives you an opportunity to compete and learn and grow."
WOMEN
In a battle of top-20 programs, No. 19 Auburn was bested by No. 4 Georgia, 173-125.
The Tigers started the meet strong with a victory in the 200 medley relay from Valerie Tarazi, Carly Cummings, Abigail Gibbons and AJ Kutsch, followed by a 1-2 finish from Emily Hetzer and Averee Preble in the 1,000 freestyle. Both Hetzer and Preble finished under the 10:00 mark.
Kutsch later earned another victory in the 50 free, finishing in 22.80 seconds.
As the meet went on, some of the Auburn freshmen made an impact in what was their collegiate debuts. Gibbons finished third in the 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly. Meghan Lee placed second in the 200 backstroke. Hannah Ownbey finished second in the 200 IM. Brynn Curtis placed fourth in the 100 and 200 breaststroke.
"I think you saw a lot of our younger athletes in the freshmen and sophomore classes really step up and perform and swim tough," Taylor said. "They swam hard today for our women's side, and we got some good wins and some good performances."
MEN
On the men's side, it was a 177-118 score in favor of No. 8 Georgia. However, similar to the women, the 22nd-ranked Tigers had a number of underclassmen step up Friday.
Freshman Reid Mikuta earned the team's first victory, swimming a 55.17 to take first in the 100 breaststroke. Mikuta later placed second in the 200 breaststroke. He also swam the breaststroke leg on the men's 200 medley team, which finished second to start the meet.
Auburn had a strong showing in the 50 freestyle where sophomores Nik Eberly and Cole Bruns finished second (20.56) and third (20.67) with junior Matthew Yish taking fourth place (20.71). Eberly also scored points with a third-place finish in the 100 butterfly.
Sophomore Lleyton Smith, who qualified for NCAAs a year ago, scored points in both the 100 and 200 backstroke, finishing second and third respectively.
DIVING
It was a breakthrough performance for sophomore Ashlynn Sullivan who scored a career-high 311.85 points to take first in the 3-meter competition, her first victory at Auburn. She also finished third on 1-meter with 251.40 points to score a total of 12 points for the women.
On the men's side, junior Conner Pruitt picked up where he left off last year with a win on 3-meter, scoring 395.25 points. The CSCAA All-American narrowly missed a sweep as he took second in the 1-meter event with 342.98 points. Sophomore Skip Donald and freshman David Vargas both placed third for Auburn – Donald on 1-meter (333.68 points) and Vargas on 3-meter (339.53 points).
"It was a pretty good day for us," head diving coach Jeff Shaffer said. "We had eight divers, five of them hit zone qualifying scores in at least one event, so that was positive. Obviously, Ashlynn's win on 3-meter was solid to get us going and get the women going. Conner had a solid score on 3-meter and was six points out of first on 1-meter. A lot of work to do yet but overall pleased with today's performance."
WHAT'S NEXT
The Tigers will welcome Florida and South Carolina to the James E. Martin Aquatics Center for the Auburn Fall Invitational later this month. The three-day event, which includes swimming and diving, will begin on Wednesday, Nov. 18.
Tigers drop dual meets in first action at Georgia
