Georgia Women, Cal Men Take UGA Fall Invitational

The Cal Golden Bears and Lady Bulldogs swam to the top of the scoreboard during the last finals session of the UGA Fall Invitational, with multiple swimmers snagging more NCAA A cuts along the way. The Lady Bulldogs (916 points) held off the Cal women (907 points) for first. On the men’s side, Cal took the meet with 921 points, just ahead of the Georgia men (916 points).

Virginia’s Leah Smith kicked off finals with an NCAA A cut in the 1650 Free (15:42.72). Lady Bulldog Brittany MacLean touched second under the A cut as well in 15:51.73.  Cal’s Cierra Runge followed up for third (15:57.70).

The Cal duo of Elizabeth Pelton (1:49.00) and Missy Franklin (1:49.23) completed a 1-2 Golden Bear sweep in the 200 Back and took home NCAA A cuts. Virginia’s Courtney Bartholomew followed up for third in an NCAA A cut of 1:49.94. Fourth-place Lady Bulldog Kylie Stewart also swam to an NCAA A cut, finishing in 1:52.20.

Lady Bulldog Olivia Smoliga took the 100 Free, swimming under the NCAA B standard with a 47.92 that’s just a few hundredths off of the NCAA A cut. Cal’s Farida Osman was just one one-hundredth of a second behind with a 47.93. Georgia’s Madeline Locus followed up for third in 48.32.

On the men’s side, Bulldog Michael Trice (43.20)  edged Cal’s Seth Stubblefield (43.23) by just three one-hundredths of a second for the top spot. Four one-hundredths of a second behind Stubblefield was his teammate Tyler Messerschmidt for fourth (43.27). The top seven swimmers in finals all swam under the NCAA B standard.

Virginia’s Laura Simon took home an NCAA A cut to win the 200 Breast (2:06.90) ahead of Georgia’s Annie Zhu (2:08.87) and Cal’s Urzianqu Garcia (2:09.16), who both swam under the NCAA B standard. The rest of the finals swimmers also swam to NCAA B cuts, as well as the top four swimmers in the B final and the top swimmer in the C final.

Georgia’s Nicolas Fink held onto his first-place prelims finish for a win in the men’s 200 Breast with an NCAA A cut of 1:53.45. Virginia’s Yannick Kaeser  finished just a few hundredths off the NCAA A standard for second (1:53.79). Cal’s Chuck Katis (1:55.00) edged Auburn’s Michael Duderstadt (1:55.06) by just sixth one-hundredths of a second for third.

Florida State’s Chelsea Britt took in the 200 Fly, winning in an NCAA A cut of 1:53.68. Following up for second was Georgia’s Hali Flickinger (1:54.46), touching just ahead of Cal’s Noemie Thomas (1:54.63). Georgia teammates Lauren Harrington (1:54.87) and Megan Kingsley (1:55.22) touched fourth and fifth, respectively.

Georgia’s Chase Kalisz claimed his second NCAA A cut of the meet on the men’s side, touching first in 1:42.22. His teammate Tyanan Stewart took second (1:42.91), just ahead of Florida State’s Connor Knight (1:43.03). Georgia’s Pace Clark touched fourth in 1:43.29 to complete a 1-2-4 Bulldog sweep.

The Virginia Tech women swept the platform diving event, taking first through fourth for a sweep of the scoreboard. The charge was led by Kaylea Arnett scoring 288.85 points. Auburn’s Fraser McKean claimed the top spot in the men’s platform event, scoring 413.70 points. Virginia’s JB Kolod took second with 404.60 points.

To finish off finals, the Cal women touched first in the 400 Free Relay with an NCAA cut of 3:11.15. The Georgia women’s A team followed up for second with a 3:12.72 ahead of the third-place Cal B team (3:14.42). Both teams swam under the NCAA standard.

On the men’s side, the Georgia A relay took first with a 2:51.87 ahead of Auburn’s A team (2:52.47). Both relays took home NCAA A cuts with their swims. Third was Cal’s B team with a 2:54.23.

Click here for full results.

The final point standings were as follows:

Women’s Scores

1. University of Georgia – 916 points

2. Cal Berkeley – 907 points

3. University of Virginia – 748 points

4. Auburn University – 405 points

5. Penn State University – 363 points

6. Florida State University – 214 points

7. Virginia Tech – 169 points

8. UCLA – 84 points

9. Harvard University – 62 points

 

Men’s Scores

1. Cal Berkeley – 921 points

2. University of Georgia – 916 points

3. Auburn University – 641 points

4. University of Virginia – 526 points

5. Penn State University – 331.5 points

6. Florida State University – 311.5 points

7. Virginia Tech – 167 points

8. Harvard University – 18 points

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calswimfan
9 years ago

GO BEARS! 😀

Just in terms of my expectations. The women performed better and the men performed a tiny bit below my expectations.

I’m sure SwimSwam will do this already, but I’m curious to see each who is safely qualified (A cuts, high B cuts) from each school.

Big Fan
9 years ago

What a fantastic meet by the fine swimmers from all teams. The UGA men’s team is at a great place for this time of the year. Check these times out…and to compete with the likes of CAL and turn in the times with these freshmen? This is going to be fun to watch. Best of luck.

bobo gigi
9 years ago

I’m always sad when Missy Franklin is beaten on backstroke but I’m definitely very happy to see her back on back. She was in 1.51.54 last year in December and the last time she was under 1.50 was in March 2013 when she swam her PB of 1.48.42.
Great meet overall this week.
1.52.99 in the 200 IM 😯
1.41.23 in the 200 free
51.85 in the 100 back
1.49.23 in the 200 back
47.63 in the 100 free (relay lead-off)

Great meet for Liz Pelton too.
1.52.93 in the 200 IM
1.43.13 in the 200 free
51.31 in the 100 back (relay lead-off)
1.49.00 in the 200 back

Matthew
Reply to  bobo gigi
9 years ago

Missy’s 200 IM is especially cool to see given it’s a best time by a wide margin. Think it’s a reflection of her partnership with Teri and evolving as an athlete. Go Bears!

100free
Reply to  bobo gigi
9 years ago

Missy posted a MeetMobile collage on Instagram pointing out that across all four of their races, she and Pelton had a total of 2.19 seconds difference (and most of that was from the 200 free). Nuts!

Tedward
9 years ago

I’m a little surprised at the lack of conversation around the stellar performances turned in by Pelton and Franklin at this meet. Not disregarding the incredible swims by Bartholemew et al, but commenters had been critical of the Cal women recently (these two stars in particular) and they certainly showed up this weekend.

Reply to  Tedward
9 years ago

Maybe because Pelton and Franklin are top dogs(Olympians), and always is expected something great by them.

Zanna
Reply to  Tedward
9 years ago

If they can replicate this or be better at an international level, then there is something to talk about.

Dan
Reply to  Zanna
9 years ago

Missy has 4 Olympic gold medals and 9 world championship gold medals. Elizabeth Pelton has 3 world championship gold medals. I would say that have gotten it done at the international level. They swam a collegiate meet, in season, and they did well. Why the need for the above comment?

Joel Lin
Reply to  Tedward
9 years ago

I doubt we saw the best swims Franklin or Pelton have this past weekend. That said, Bartholomew looks to me like a swimmer that will send one Bear home at the 2016 Trials in the 100 back. Her rate of improvement can’t be denied, and with some development she also may compete for a 200 back spot in 2016. Smith looks like a lock down international podium swimmer to and through 2016 now.

TheTroubleWithX
9 years ago

The Georgia men swam to the fastest time in the nation in the 4×100 free by getting 43.1 splits from a couple of guys who are primarily breaststrokers, not freestyle sprint specialists, in Nic Fink and Gunnar Bentz. The latter particularly was on fire this whole meet.

mid season invites
Reply to  TheTroubleWithX
9 years ago

its hard to say for sure – but looking at some of these results …does anyone know if UVA was well rested and UGA men ? it appears that Cal and Auburn and UGA women swam good times but think that UVA teams and maybe UGA men rested up more to get more sports at ncaa’s since it is so competitive (looking at the men’s 4 x 100 free relay for georgia as a prime example…a school record in mid season invite ??)

JP
Reply to  mid season invites
9 years ago

Does it really matter? UGA could get a school record at a midseason invite in a sprint relay just because they have a bunch of guys that can sprint that they haven’t had before. Doesn’t stop them from still swimming fast in March.

9 years ago

Anyone know the DQ’ed Cal 400 FR relay’s time? I’m really impressed by Georgia’s 2:51. You don’t normally think of them as a sprinting team, but that time would have made the big final at NCAAs.

sorry charlie
Reply to  Justin Pollard
9 years ago

cal was 0.02 faster than uga is the 4×1 relay… damn good relay by georgia, too bad cal left early on the exchange!

matthew
9 years ago

an unsung hero here during the whole meet for Cal was Farida Osman…she is really coming along in the sprint free’s … a crucial linchpin for the Bears to keep par with Georgia and Stanford.

When Weitzell and Bilquist join her next year it will be amazing!