Cavaliers Break Five School Records on First Day of Georgia Fall Invitational

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Dec. 5, 2014

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ATHENS, Ga.–Virginia’s women swimmers broke five school records as the Cavalier swimming and diving teams competed action on day one of the Georgia Fall Invitational Friday at Gabrielsen Natatorium.

After one day of action, the Cavalier women are in second with 230 points, behind host Georgia (277), but ahead of California (223), Auburn (108), Penn State (105) and Florida State (60). Virginia’s men are in fourth place with 139 points, behind Georgia (275), Cal (269) and Auburn (188), but ahead of Florida State (85) and Penn State (82).

“All in all it was a really good day,” UVa head coach Augie Busch said. “We had a lot of highlights and best times, especially coming within a few tenths of a second of three NCAA records. Tomorrow is another day and another opportunity for everyone to be better than they’ve been and we’re excited for that.”

The women’s 400 medley relay of junior Courtney Bartholomew, sophomore Laura Simon, junior Ellen Williamson and sophomore Ellen Thomas broke the ACC and Virginia record in 3:27.84, just 0.33 off the NCAA and US Open record. Bartholomew’s lead-off 100 back of 50.01 is the second-fastest time ever, second only to Natalie Coughlin’s 49.97 at the 2002 NCAA Championships.

Sophomore Leah Smith won the women’s 500 free in a time of 4:32.70, but in the prelims she broke the ACC and Virginia record in 4:32.61, just .08 off the NCAA record, and the ninth-fastest time in the history of the event.

All in all, the Cavalier women missed three NCAA records by a combined 0.45.

In the women’s 200 IM, junior Courtney Bartholomew, Kaitlyn Jones and Ellen Williamson placed third (1:55.27), fifth (1:56.07) and sixth (1:56.11), while senior Shaun Casey was eighth in 1:58.36. In the prelims, the Cavaliers’ top three went under Williamson’s previous school record of 1:56.13. Jones and Williamson went 1:55.61 and 1:55.93, respectively, before Bartholomew followed in the next heat in an NCAA automatic-qualifying time of 1:55.23 to set the new school record.

The women’s 200 free relay of freshman Caitlin Cooper, sophomore Shannon Rauth, Thomas and Williamson placed fourth in a school-record time of 1:28.54. That time was also an NCAA automatic-qualifying time.

Senior JB Kolod won the men’s 1-meter diving event with a score of 370.80, while juniors Colby Shinholser and Carl Buergler finshed 11th (273.35) and 12th (269.35), respectively.

In women’s 3m diving finals, junior Becca Corbett placed 4th with a score of 313.90, while freshman Emily Langworthy was 13th with 253.70.

“We had a solid day one,” UVa head diving coach Jason Glorius said. “We continue to compete well and carry over what we work on in practice to the meet.”

Sophomore Austin Quinn placed fourth in the men’s 500 free in 4:19.90, while freshman Luke Georgiadis was eighth in 4:27.36.

In the women’s 50 free, sophomore Ellen Thomas placed fifth in 22.29, while freshman Caitlin Cooper was eighth in 22.71. In prelims, Thomas went 22.14 to rank second on UVa’s all-time list, while Cooper won a swim-off in 22.37 to rank third and move on to the A final.

The men’s 200 free relay of sophomore Matt Lockman, freshman Nick Magana, sophomore Adam Whitener and Luke Georgiadis placed sixth in 1:21.17. Lockman also touched sixth in the men’s 50 free in 20.00, which ranks in a tie for seventh all-time in UVa history.

Also in the women’s 400 medley relay, senior Emily Dicus led off the B relay with a time of 53.23, while freshman Jennifer Marrkand led off the C relay with a 100 back of 53.36. Those times rank eighth and ninth on UVa’s all-time list, respectively.

The action continues Saturday with swimming prelims at 9:30 a.m. and finals at 5 p.m. Diving takes place at 11:30 a.m. with prelims and finals at 5:15 p.m.