After an easy victory at home last weekend, the swimming and diving teams faced their toughest test of the season when traveling to Athens. Racing against the University of Georgia, a top-tier NCAA Division I school, the Eagles had their work cut out for them. Although the Eagles combined for four NCAA 'B' cut times and recorded season-best times in 15 different events on Friday night, both the men and women fell to the Bulldogs.
The third-ranked Emory men fell by a final score of 137-73, while the top-ranked women dropped a 130-97 decision. Both teams fell to 2-2 in dual meets this season.
"Overall, it was a good step forward for our team," Head Coach Jon Howell said. "We had a number of in-season best times, and our student-athletes have done a nice job of applying what we are working on in practice to a competitive environment."
The most notable performance for the men was from sophomore Jared Scheuer, swimming a mark of 1:53.0 in order to achieve a 'B' cut time.
However there were many strong performances for the men, with seven Eagles achieving season-best times. These swimmers included junior Hayden Baker, swimming a 1:55.58 in 200-yard butterfly, senior Jake Stephens swimming a 1:55.43 in the 200-yard individual medley, junior Eric Ruggieri swimming a 2:08.11 in the 200-yard breaststroke, the entire 400-yard medley squad swimming a 3:26.52 and the 200-yard freestyle relay team swimming a 1:23.57.
Leading the women was sophomore Elizabeth Aronoff swimming a 2:21.41 and freshman Annelise Kowalsky swimming a 2:23.95. Both achieved 'B' cut times with their impressive outing in the 200-yard backstroke. The intermediate medley team also recorded a 'B' cut time in their fourth-place finish.
The women also had season-best outings from Larson in the 100-yard freestyle, freshman Marissa Bergh in the 200-yard freestyle, Kowalsky in the 200-yard individual medley, freshman McKenna Newsum-Schoenberg in the 500-yard freestyle, sophomore Ellie Thompson in the 200-yard backstroke, senior Sarah Greene in the three-meter dive and the 200-yard freestyle relay team of freshman Claire Liu, freshman Marissa Bergh, junior Dana Holt and senior Suzanne Lemberg.
The swimming and diving team performed better but fared worse against tougher competition. Emory's divers will return to competition next weekend, when the squad hosts the Emory Diving Invitational on Saturday, Nov. 23 at 1 p.m. The rest of the squad will wrap up the 2013 portion of their schedule at the Miami (Ohio) Invitational from Dec. 5-7.
– By Michael Scheck
Photo courtesy of Emory Athletics
