ATHENS, Ga. — Auburn standout freshman swimmer Zetta Grace Bartee broke an 18-year-old record, finishing the 200 butterfly in 1:54.44. Bartee logged just her third race of her collegiate career in the event, already toppling Ava Ohlgren's school record of 1:54.64, set in March 2008. Bartee's performance came in the regular season finale of the inaugural College Swimming League season. The Tigers scored 316 points in the match, finishing fourth against Tennessee (668), Alabama (382), and Georgia (353).
Warner Russ was one of the top performers overall at the match, winning the 50 freestyle skins. Russ defeated Alabama's Toni Dragoja by .11 seconds in the final round of the event. Russ qualified through rounds one and two with a third-place finish (19.78) and second-place finish (20.35), respectively. Russ then surpassed his second-round time with a 20.19 finish to top the four-man field in the third round. Russ crowned himself the event winner with a 20.63 finish over Dragoja in the head-to-head fourth round.
Russ was able to win the skins in his discipline of choice, freestyle, because Auburn won the men's 200 freestyle relay, giving the Tigers the right to choose the stroke for the men's skins. Russ, along with Mike Rice, Matthew Hamilton, and Nicolas Gama, won the relay with a 1:16.28 finish. All four Tigers swam sub-19.2 legs of the relay. Russ led the relay with a 19.03 leg. Gama then anchored the team with a 19.00 performance. Auburn won the men's 200 freestyle relay in both CSL matches it competed in.
Including Bartee, four Tigers graced the Auburn record book Friday night. Gabriel Machuco, a two-time winner on the night, upped his personal best in the 200 IM. Zoey Zeller claimed another place on the 200 breaststroke board. Finally, Kaua Carvalho enters the Auburn record book as a top-10 performer in the men's 100 breaststroke.
Machuco continued his dominance in the individual medley, sweeping the discipline for the night with wins in both the 100-yard and 200-yard events. Machuco's 1:42.96 win in the 200 IM is his personal best and made him the sixth-fastest Tiger ever in the event. 1:42.96 was the 17th-fastest time in school history in the 200 IM. Machuco started his night with a win in the 100 IM, topping the field with a 47.14 finish.
Zeller finished third in the 200 breaststroke with a 2:09.21 finish, the 17th-best finish in school history, marking her fourth-best time for the Tigers and fifth different finish to crack the Auburn top-25 performance chart.
Carvalho breaks into the Auburn history books with a 52.35 third-place finish in the 100 breaststroke, placing him ahead of teammate Maston Ballew as the eighth-fastest Tiger ever in the event.
Other Tiger podiums from the match included Rice's 19.43 second-place finish in the 50 freestyle, Alexey Glivinsky's 42.68 performance in the 100 freestyle to finish second, Daniel Krichevsky finishing second in the 200 freestyle at 1:34.30, and Luke Bedsole's 1:44.23 finish for third in the 200 butterfly.
Auburn finished the CSL regular season with three league points and 687.5 points overall, finishing 10th overall in the league ahead of Georgia and Ohio State.
The Tigers are back in the pool for their first full-length dual meet of the season at LSU on Nov. 5. Auburn heads to Baton Rouge for a noon CT meet at the LSU Natatorium.
—War Eagle—