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Prelims: Day Three at the Georgia Invite
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ATHENS, Ga. – Eight Virginia women and seven men earned spots in four different event finals after the completion of preliminaries on the third and final day of the Georgia Invitational held Sunday at Gabrielsen Natatorium in Athens, Ga.
“It really speaks to our conditioning how well we responded this morning,” Virginia head coach Mark Bernardino said. “We have laid a heavy aerobic base on this group for the vast majority of this first semester. We still haven’t tapped into the type of speed training that you need to do to be supremely proficient, but what I saw out there today was a very fit team. I am pleased with what I saw this morning. We have a really short turnaround before finals so we’ll see what happens.”
Junior Meredith Cavalier is the top seed out of the morning in the 200 backstroke, posting the fastest prelim time of 1:55.46, a NCAA ‘B’ mark. Teammate Caroline Kenney’s time of 1:55.48 was the second-fastest. Meanwhile, three more Cavaliers will compete in the consolation final in Charlotte Clarke (1:56.82), Ellen Williamson (1:56.85) and Erika Stewart (1:57.25). Each of those times were also ‘B’ cuts.
Sophomore Parker Camp also earned a berth in the 200 backstroke final after he clocked a time of 1:46.71. Teammates Kyle Dudzinski (1:48.39), Matt Murray (1:48.54) and Nathan Vredeveld (1:49.63) will all swim in the consolation final of the event, while Jack Murfee (1:50.05) and Tim Maurer (1:51.00) are set to swim in the bonus final.
Junior Lauren Perdue swam her way into the final of the 100 freestyle with a ‘B’ time of 48.85 during the preliminaries, the fourth-best mark. Emily Lloyd (50.37), Dana Nessler (50.77) and Meredith Perdue (51.11) will all participate in the bonus final.
Junior Tom Barrett and senior David Karasek had solid showings in the 100 freestyle to earn spots in the finals. Barrett’s time of 44.49 was the fourth-fastest and Karasek’s 44.77 was sixth-best out of the morning. Peter Geissinger clocked a time of 45.29 and will compete in the consolation final.
Junior Christine Olson reached the final of the 200 breaststroke after posting the sixth-fastest preliminary time, touching in a ‘B’ mark of 2:13.25. Megan Fox (2:18.52) earned a berth in the bonus final.
Sophomore Taylor Grey posted the second-fastest time in the 200 breaststroke preliminaries (2:00.25) and will be joined by Tom Casey (2:00.78) in the final heat. Nick Montes de Oca (2:02.96) will participate in the consolation final and Bradley Phillips (2:05.30) will swim in the bonus final.
The Cavalier women ended the morning on a high note place four swimmers in the final of the 200 butterfly. Freshman Alison Haulsee’s time of 1:58.04 was the fourth-best of the session; Sarah White (1:58.37), Rachel Naurath (1:59.33) and Fox (1:59.37) will also compete in the heat. All four times were NCAA ‘B’ standards.
The duo of Nathan Hart (1:49.55) and David Ingraham (1:49.61) earned spots in the 200 butterfly final as Hart’s time was fifth-best and Ingraham’s sixth-fastest in the morning. Matt Houser (1:50.69) and Jan Daniec (1:51.45) are set to swim in the consolation final of the event.
Timed finals of the 1650 freestyle began after the preliminary session and the fastest heat will swim this afternoon in the last session. The 400 freestyle relay will also be contested as the final event of the meet. Finals begin at 3 p.m.