Swimming & Diving Opens New Year at Home
1/7/2012 11:15:00 PM | Swimming and Diving
STATESBORO, Ga. - The Georgia Southern Swimming and Diving team opens the new year by hosting Gardner-Webb and Darton on Sunday at noon. In one of only two home meets at the RAC left on the schedule, the Eagles look to continue their strong start to the season from before the holiday break. The first 50 fans to attend the meet will receive a True Blue Towel.
"We are excited to begin the home stretch of our season leading up to the CCSA Championships," said Head Coach Nate Kellogg. "We certainly expect the meets against Gardner-Webb and Darton College Sunday to be competitive and exciting, and a good benchmark for us this season."
Georgia Southern (3-2, 2-0) starts the final stretch of CCSA meets with the Gardner-Webb Bulldogs. The rest of the January schedule includes a trip to North Florida, a home meet with Florida Gulf Coast on the 21st and a six-team meet at Davidson before the CCSA Championships in Athens, Ga., in February.
"We have a lot of meets during January with CCSA teams, which will give us many opportunities to sharpen our races and tune up for the CCSA Championships," said Kellogg.
The Eagles' only meet in November was a ten-team invite at Radford. GSU placed third out of ten teams at the Highlander Invitational. The 400 Free Relay team of Kristen Bates (Peachtree City, Ga.), Devan White (Kennesaw, Ga.), Katie Crider (Bloomington, Ind.) and Elaina Lanson (Wadsworth, Ohio) highlighted the meet with a second-place finish (3:34.50). Lanson also posted season-highs in the 50 Free (23.54) and 100 Free (52.63) in the three-day event.
Gardner-Webb won the Wingate Fall Frenzy in their last meet back in November. The Bulldogs won nine events over the three-day event and finished strong with four victories on the final day. Faith Kempf posted a personal best of 2:04.96 en route to winning the 200 fly, while Charity Byrum won the 200 IM with a season-best time of 2:06.45.
Darton College (2-0), located in Albany and a member of the NJCAA, comes to Statesboro after a stellar meet at the SCAD Invitational in December. The Cavaliers broke six school records and finished fourth in the meet. Freshman Anna Macht finished no lower than fourth in her individual events and set records in the 100-yard breaststroke, 200-yard breaststroke, 200-yard IM and 400-yard IM.
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