New Zealand has announced a roster of 10 athletes for the upcoming World University Games taking place in Taipei, Taiwan from August 19-30. Among the athletes are two University of Florida Gators in Bayley Main and Georgia Marris, along with University of Wisconsin Badger Matthew Hutchins.
Main earned his first international competition medals at 2015’s edition of the Commonwealth Youth Games in Samoa, where he collected bronze in both the 50m and 100m backstroke events. Most recently at the 2017 New Zealand Open Championships, the meet which served as the selection competition for WUGs, Main earned a national title in the 50m backstroke.
Florida teammate Marris will be competing in her 2nd consecutive WUGs competition, having already captured a finals appearance at the 2015 edition as part of New Zealand’s 7th place finishing 4x200m freestyle relay. Marris finished 2nd in the women’s 200m freestyle, and collected 3rd place finishes in both the 400m free and 100m fly at the 2017 NZ Open meet.
For Hutchins, the Wisconsin Badger fell just short of qualifying for the World Championships even amidst winning 4 national titles this year. Although he won the men’s 400m/800m and 1500m freestyle titles, Hutchins’ times were not within the qualifying marks for Budapest.
WUGs roster for New Zealand:
Corneille Coetzee
Carina Doyle
Jacob Garrod
Matthew Hutchins
Bayley Main
Georgia Marris
Michael Mincham
George Schroder
Julian Weir
Sammy Winward
