Competitor Coach of the Month: Jack Bauerle, Georgia

Competitor Coach of the Month is a recurring SwimSwam feature shedding light on a U.S.-based coach who has risen above the competition. As with any item of recognition, Competitor Coach of the Month is a subjective exercise meant to highlight one coach whose work holds noteworthy context – perhaps a coach who was clearly in the limelight, or one whose work fell through the cracks a bit more among other stories. If your favorite coach wasn’t selected, feel free to respectfully recognize them in our comment section.

The Georgia Bulldogs had great showings at their fall invitational, while several Georgia-based pros stood out in the ISL taking place in Hungary.

Coach Jack Bauerle has spent years cobbling together sprint free relays out of converted IMers, breaststrokers, distance swimmers, divers… well, maybe not the last one. But Bauerle took a big step in addressing UGA’s sprint deficiencies in the last few rounds of recruiting, and it paid off with three school records on relays.

Here are the three school record relays:

200 free relay:

• Dillon Downing: 19.41
• Javier Acevedo: 18.80
• Camden Murphy: 19.06
• Luca Urlando: 19.08

400 free relay:

• Luca Urlando: 42.42
• Javier Acevedo: 41.86
• Jake Magahey: 42.86
• Dillon Downing: 42.13

200 medley relay:

• Javier Acevedo: 21.14
• Jack Dalmolin: 23.83
• Camden Murphy: 19.77
• Dillon Downing: 18.86

Dillon Downing looks like a true sprinter to build around in his sophomore season. Camden Murphy has been a standout flyer, and broke the school record with a 44.89 in the 100 fly. That was Murphy’s first swim under 45 seconds, and moves him to #21 all-time in the event. Meanwhile the freshman Luca Urlando has been a standout in his NCAA debut.

Some other key swims for the Georgia Bulldogs:

• Courtney Harnish‘s 4:36.86 win in the 500 free was just 1.3 seconds off her best time.
• Freshman Jake Magahey hit personal bests in the 500 free (4:10.48) and 1650 free (14:33.78).
• Sophomore Zoie Hartman was just a tenth off her personal bests in both the 100 breast (58.34) and 200 breast (2:06.34).

And while they haven’t been training with Bauerle for the past month, several of his Georgia-based professionals helped the Cali Condors win the ISL’s 2020 season title: Olivia Smoliga, Natalie Hinds, Veronica Burchill, Nic Fink, Gunnar Bentz and Kevin Cordes.

About Competitor Swim

Since 1960, Competitor Swim® has been the leader in the production of racing lanes and other swim products for competitions around the world. Competitor lane lines have been used in countless NCAA Championships, as well as 10 of the past 13 Olympic Games. Molded and assembled using U.S. – made components, Competitor lane lines are durable, easy to set up and are sold through distributors and dealers worldwide.

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