Men Match Up With D-1 and D-3 Teams

This past Saturday, the Emory men’s swimming and diving team split in half to take on the University of Georgia Bulldogs and the Sewanee: the University of the South (Tenn.) Tigers.

The athletes who traveled to UGA suffered a 173-115 loss against the Bulldogs’ second-ranked Division I team.

While the Eagles suffered losses as a team against the D-I powerhouse, numerous individual Emory athletes showed tremendous performances. The Eagles recorded a total of 16 NCAA qualifying marks.

The Emory team was able to snatch one first-place finish with University Athletic Association (UAA) Athlete of the Week junior Andrew Wilson’s ‘B’ cut time of 56.65 seconds in the 100-yard backstroke. He also gained a second ‘B’ cut time in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:05.31, good for second place.

“Winning the event wasn’t actually that big of a deal,” Wilson said. “I know a lot of the UGA guys, and they didn’t swim their very best; they have many great swimmers in that event.”

Other qualifying marks came from the third-place finishes by senior Hayden Baker in the 200-yard butterfly (1:53.57), junior Jared Scheuer in the 200-yard backstroke (1:52.58) and sophomore Mitchell Cooper in the 400-yard individual medley (4:05.72).

Many Eagles were able to follow the UGA first-place wins very closely. In the 1,000-yard freestyle, junior Eagan Zettlemoyer placed second by a margin of 33.86 seconds. Freshman Wes Duke came second in the 100-yard freestyle only .55 seconds behind first place. “Getting wins at UGA was not the main focus,” Wilson added. “Our main goal continues to be nationals and the UGA meet was to bring us out of our comfort zone.” The other half of the team traveled to Sewanee, Tenn. to claim a 148-108 win, where the Eagles were victorious in 26 of 32 events.

“This win [at Sewanee] was an easy win and a good morale booster for the swimmers going into our championship meets next week,” sophomore Hayes Burdette-Sapp said. “The swimmers who went to UGA have nationals on their mind; they’ll train through the UAAs. But, the swimmers who went to Sewanee, our championships will be the UAAs and the Emory Invite.”

The 200-yard medley relay finished strongly. The team of freshman Brandon Shinsato, freshman Michael Grenon, senior Kevin Flood and sophomore David Tao won with a 1:37.94 time to Sewanee’s 1:40.96.

The Eagles saw countless individual wins, as well. Senior Cameron Herting won the 1,000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:38.72 and the 500-yard freestyle at 5:02.13. Sophomore Hayes Burdette-Sapp won the 200-yard freestyle (1:46.30). Shinsato added wins in the 100-yard backstroke (54.27 seconds) and in the 200-yard backstroke (1:57.42). Grenon won the 100-yard breaststroke with a 1:00.36 time. Flood won the 200-yard butterfly (2:00.30). Senior Brian Glatt of the Sewanee Tigers won the 100-yard freestyle in 48.22 seconds. Eagles freshman John Copses won the 200-yard breaststroke (2:16.73). Tao added another win with the 100-yard butterfly (55.29 seconds).

“The next focus is the UAAs, where we [the men] are just trying to keep our streak alive as [University of] Chicago, Washington University [in St. Louis] and NYU [New York University] are really good,” Wilson said. “The women will definitely win, they’re very good.”

The Eagles will have a week off to rest, but will be back in action to host the first round of the UAA Championships from Wednesday, Feb. 11 to Saturday, Feb. 14 in the Woodruff Physical Education Center (WoodPEC).

— By Elana Cates, Asst. Sports Editor

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