TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Auburn swimming and diving team split a dual meet at Florida State on Friday in what was the first meet of the 2021-22 season.
The Auburn women, ranked No. 23, knocked off the Seminoles for the second year in a row with a 177-123 victory while the men dropped a hard-fought contest, 153-147, to No. 15 Florida State – an improvement from last year's result.
"We saw some great racing today," Auburn head coach Ryan Wochomurka said. "I'm proud of the women in coming away with a win, and of the men in taking a top 15 team down to the wire on the road. We are learning how to execute and how to race. It's exciting to see some of the performances we saw today this early in the season."
WOMEN
Senior Emily Hetzer got the Tigers going with back-to-back first place finishes in the 1000 freestyle and 200 freestyle. It was two of three victories on the day for Hetzer who also won the 500 free with a time of 4:51.85, seven seconds faster than the next competitor.
In all, Auburn won 10 of the 14 swimming events on the women's side.
Among the winners were freshmen Ellie Waldrep (100 back), Rebekah Hamilton (100 free) and Avery Bargeron (100 fly) who all secured their first career victories at Auburn. Waldrep set the Morcom Aquatics Center pool record with a time of 53.07 in the 100 backstroke.
Hamilton also led off the winning 400 freestyle relay, which featured graduate transfer Mykenzie Leehy along with Emma Steckiel and Claudia Thamm.
MEN
The Auburn men nearly pulled off the upset with a win in the 400 freestyle relay to close the meet. The winning relay team featured Aidan Stoffle, Ryan Husband, Mikkel Gadgaard and Christian Sztolcman.
It was sophomores Michael Bonson and Gadgaard who touched the wall first for the Tigers on Friday with Bonson winning the 1000 freestyle and Gadgaard taking first in the 200 freestyle. Bonson and Gadgaard also finished 1-2 in the 500 free later in the meet.
Fellow sophomore Reid Mikuta also had a standout performance with victories in the 100 and 200 breaststroke and a second-place finish in the 200 IM. Mikuta set the pool record in the 100 breast, finishing in 53.28.
DIVING
Though there were no victories for Auburn on the boards Friday, the divers still picked up valuable points with second-place finishes from Ashlynn Sullivan and Whit Andrus and third-place finishes from Conner Pruitt, Gretchen Wensuc and Abigail Farrar.
Pruitt finished third on both spring boards, earning a pair of NCAA Zone qualifying scores. Sullivan (3-meter) and Andrus (1-meter) also secured Zone scores.
"There were some really good performances, some really good dives, but overall I was a little disappointed and frustrated because the things we're working on in practice to correct were kind of amplified by their lack of focus and lack of finish of dives," head diving coach Jeff Shaffer said. I thought we could've been a little bit stronger.
"It's a building block. It's our first meet. We have a lot to improve upon and looking forward to seeing how we rebound in our competition against Kentucky and NC State next weekend."
WHAT'S NEXT
Auburn will make their home debut next Friday when the Tigers welcome Kentucky and North Carolina State to the James E. Martin Aquatics Center for a double dual meet.
