STATESBORO, Ga. - The Georgia Southern swimming and diving team celebrated Senior Day while also competing in its first home meet of the 2017-18 season by downing Campbell University, 150-144, in dual meet action on Friday afternoon at the RAC Aquatic Center in Statesboro.
The Eagles edged the Camels in a matchup of two CCSA squads by winning seven of the 16 competed events, but sweeping the top three spots in three of them - the 500 Freestyle and both the 1-meter and 3-meter dives.
"I'm really proud of how our girls swam, and it was great to see our divers on the boards," Head Coach Laura Thomas said. "They looked good. So I'm excited to see how they progress throughout the season. We're in the middle of some really hard training right now, the girls are sore, but they stood up and they raced and it was a lot of fun to watch."
The 500 Freestyle saw the strongest swimming performance of the night for the Eagles as Randi Kiser (5:11.57), Anna Rose Moore (5:13.87) and Klaudia Holt (5:15.53) finished 1-2-3. Other race winners on the day for the Eagles included Kiser also capturing the 1,000 Freestyle (10:35.94), Mackenzie Brown winning the 50 Freestyle (23:93), Bre Stuart notching a win in the 200 Breaststroke (2:23.27) and Courtney Schaefer capturing the 200 IM (2:09.96).
Diving saw the Eagles sweep the 3-meter boards with Katie Knight (251.25) finishing first, Sara Rogers (235.57) taking second and Sarah Mohnkern (234.52) taking third. Knight also won the 1-meter boards with a score of 238.72, followed by Mohnkern (234.37) and Hannah Mudge (203.77). Click here for full meet results.
Midway through the meet, the Eagles honored their four seniors in a ceremony - Amber Cortazzo, Madison Heydinger, Kiera McCormack and Kaylyn Thomas.
"We had to do it early this year," Coach Thomas said. "I think we're making it as memorable as possible - we're doing a dinner after the meet and going to honor them a bit more. All of their families are coming over, so it'll be nice."
Next up for the Eagles is a weekend trip to North Carolina, where Georgia Southern will face Liberty and Gardner-Webb in a tri-meet in Boiling Springs, N.C., on Friday, October 27th. The Eagles will follow that up with a dual meet at UNC Asheville on Saturday, October 28th.
"Those will be good meets," Coach Thomas said. "Liberty is very tough, Gardner-Webb beat us at home last year, so it will be fun to swim against them in a dual meet, and UNC Asheville is always a good team. We're looking forward to it."
