MELBOURNE, Fla. - The Georgia Southern women's swimming team wrapped up three days of competition at the 2017 Florida Tech Panther Invitational, finishing first among the six teams competing with 858 points.
The Eagles outpointed West Florida (836.5), with North Florida (573), Tampa (569), Saint Leo (482) and host Florida Tech (374.5) over the weekend in 18 total events of competition. Georgia Southern won five of those and overall finished in the top three in 12 of the 18 events.
"To steal a line from [Georgia Southern Head Football] Coach Chad Lunsford, we showed up and showed out!" Head Swimming Coach Laura Thomas said. "I'm so proud of how our girls came together as a team. It really showed in their performances this weekend. We are very excited to see our momentum build going into the second half of our season."
The competition began with the Eagles picking up a victory in the 200 Freestyle Relay as the team of Morgan Fleming, Kaylyn Thomas, Anna Moers and Mackenzie Brown won with a time of 1:34.13. Courtney Schaefer then followed with a win in the 200 IM in a personal best time of 2:04.34.Â
The 200 IM relay team of Moers, Bre Stuart, Thomas and Brown swam second in a time of 1:43.85, and Schaefer swam second for the Eagles in the 400 IM in a time of 4:26.43.Â
Thomas added a third-place finish in the 100 Butterfly in a time of 56:48. She also joined teammates Schaefer, Amber Cortazzo and Ashley Kubel to swim third in the 800 Freestyle Relay in a time of 7:38.74.
Kubel claimed third in the 200 Backstroke in a time of 2:06.27, while Fleming picked up a third-place swim in the 100 Freestyle in a time of 51.48.Â
The Eagles claimed two more race wins on the final day as Stuart won the 200 Breaststroke in a time of 2:19.49 and the 400 Freestyle Relay team of Fleming, Rachel Pelzek, Brown and Thomas won in a time of 3:26.38. Schaefer capped a strong weekend by swimming second in the 200 Butterfly in a time of 2:04.77.
In all, several Eagle swimmers set new personal bests. You can view the complete list of results from the 2017 Panther Invite here.
Georgia Southern will break for final exams, then return to the pool on December 14th, visiting Florida International University for a dual meet against the Panthers.
