Swimming & Diving in Third Place after Day One of the Highlander Invitational
11/18/2011 3:57:00 AM | Swimming and Diving
"The preliminaries were a little rough getting started this morning, but we swam much better tonight," said Head Coach Nate Kellogg. "There are some things we can improve on and we'll have the opportunity to do that during the next two days of competition."
The Eagles earned 181 points through the first six events to trail only Liberty (234) and Campbell (196) in the 10 team field.
The finals began with the 200 Free Relay and Georgia Southern's 'A' team of Elaina Lanson (Wadsworth, Ohio), Kristen Bates (Peachtree City, Ga.), Emily Fell (Brunswick, Ga.) and Devan White (Kennesaw, Ga.) finished fourth (1:38.82) to begin the scoring for the Eagles. The Eagles 'B' team of Katie Crider (Bloomington, Ind.), Courtney Harrison (Greenville, S.C.), Abigail Lavallin (Bridgwater, Somerset) and Sarah Schwartz (Greenwood, S.C.) swam to a ninth-place finish (1:42.53).
In the 500 Free, freshman Amber Juncker (Bogart, Ga.) placed third (5:07.78) and junior Pirie Humphries (Athens, Ga.) placed 15th (5:21.73).
The Eagles earned three top-15 finishes in the 200 Individual Medley including Megan Ostrom (St. Louis Park, Minn.) who finished 10th (2:12.96), Rikki Babuka (Richmond, Ky.) who finished 14th (2:14.00) and Harrison who swam to a 15th place finish (2:14.87).
In the 50 Free, Lanson placed second (23.54) for the high finish of the day for the Eagles, while Bates sprinted to a 14th place finish (25.13).
Georgia Southern placed two inside the top-8 in the 1-Meter Board event. Sophomore Sara Meisenhelder (Carmel, Ind.) earned the Eagles third top-3 finish on the day (208.45), while teammate Alden Lynch (Jacksonville, Fla.) placed eighth (161.40).
In the 400 Medley Relay, the Eagles 'A' team of Schwartz, Bates, Lavallin and Lanson swam to a fourth place finish (3:59.62), while Georgia Southern's 'B' team of JoAnn Filipov (Watkinsville, Ga.), Ostrom, Lindsay Mullican (Lancaster, Pa.) and White finished sixth.
The Eagles will return to the pool tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m. for preliminaries before they return for the second-round finals at 6:00 p.m. The Highlander Invitational concludes on Saturday, November 19th, with the last round of finals scheduled to end at 4:15 p.m.
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