Auburn S&D sweeps Georgia Tech in road dual meet

ATLANTA – In the first dual meet of 2021, Auburn could not have asked for a better result as both the men's and women's teams earned victories at Georgia Tech on Friday. 

It was the second straight year the Tigers have swept Georgia Tech on the road. 

"We trained hard and did a lot of good work over the last five weeks," Auburn head coach Gary Taylor said. "The team has come together and gotten through the hard time as one. We came out and battled. Not everything went our way, but we found a way to get over it, perform well and walk away with a couple of big wins. It's always nice to start the year with a couple of Ws."

WOMEN

The Auburn women, ranked No. 19 nationally, won the 200 medley relay to open the meet and never looked back as they cruised to a 178-81 victory over the Yellow Jackets. 

"On paper, our women were the better team and they lived up to that expectation," Taylor said. "I thought they brought a lot of energy and enthusiasm and really dominated the meet from start to finish."

Senior Carly Cummings, who swam the breaststroke leg on the winning 200 medley relay, posted an NCAA B cut (1:01.83) to win the 100 breaststroke and earned a second victory in the 200 IM. Junior Emily Hetzer was also a double-event winner with first-place finishes in both the 200 and 500 freestyle events. 

The upperclassmen led the way for the Tigers, but the freshmen also shined. Meghan Lee swept the backstroke events, winning the 100 and 200 backstroke, while Emma Steckiel picked up victories in the 50 and 100 freestyle events. 

MEN

On the men's side, the 22nd-ranked Tigers didn't win as many individual events but proved to be the deeper and more talented team with a 145-117 victory over No. 17 Georgia Tech. 

"I'm really proud of our men," Taylor said. "In a lot of events where Georgia Tech won, we went 2-3-4. And when we got our wins, we really took advantage and had some 1-2-3 finishes to separate ourselves."

One of those 1-2-3 finishes came in the 50 freestyle where Nik Eberly, Matthew Yish and Logan Tirheimer took the top three spots. Auburn also earned a clean sweep in the 200 backstroke behind performances from Lleyton Smith, Aidan Stoffle and Elliott Jones. 

Coming off the 200 backstroke, freshman Michael Bonson all but secured the meet victory for the men with an individual win in the 500 freestyle, finishing in 4:26.99. It was the second win of the day for Bonson who also placed first in the 1,000 freestyle. 

WHAT'S NEXT

Auburn will be back in action next week when the men's and women's teams travel to Tuscaloosa to square off against in-state rival Alabama on Friday, Jan. 15. The divers, who didn't travel to Georgia Tech, are expected to make their 2021 debut at Alabama.