USA Swimming Sectionals, Athens: Tyler McGill, Mark Gangloff Shine on Third Night

By David Rieder

ATHENS, Georgia, July 17. AUBURN swimmers Tyler McGill and Mark Gangloff, both members of last year's U.S. World Championship team, posted world-ranked times in their signature events during the third night of long course meter racing at the USA Swimming Sectional meet on the campus of the University of Georgia in Athens.

McGill won the 100 fly in an impressive 52.80, just a half second off his eighth-ranked 52.25 from last month. His teammate Fred Bousquet led McGill, 24.43 to 25.01 at the halfway mark, but McGill used a superior second length to take the win. Bousquet faded to second, posting a 53.62, while St. Petersburg's Tommy Wyher ended up third at 54.12. Notably, in preliminary competition this morning, Auburn's Cesar Cielo posted a 50 split of 23.62, moving him to sixth in the world in the 50 fly, while Nicholas Santos clocked 24.03 halfway through, which placed him in a tie for 24th in the world. However, it is unclear whether these times will count, as both swimmers are listed as disqualified.

In the men's 100 breast, Gangloff led wire-to-wire and finished up with a winning time of 1:01.09, just off his eighth-ranked season-best of 1:00.73 from the Paris Open three weeks ago. Teammate Henrique Barbosa finished second at 1:02.48, ahead of South Florida's Vlad Polyakov, who checked in with a third-place 1:02.68.

Athens Bulldogs went 1-2 in the women's 400 free, with Morgan Scroggy winning at 4:13.06. Scroggy, who also won the 200 free on Friday, finished nearly three-and-a-half seconds ahead of teammate Chelsea Nauta, who beat out Auburn's Maggie Bird for second, 4:16.45 to 4:16.70. In the men's 400 free, Poseidon's Tyler Harris held off a strong charge on the final length from Swim Atlanta's Matt Bartlett, winning in 3:58.61, to Bartlett's 3:59.40. SwimMAC's J.T. Stilley rounded out the top three with a 4:00.05.

U.S. Olympian Christine Marshall touched first in the women's 100 fly. Marshall clocked 1:00.45, beating GCAT's Patrica Forrester, the 200 fly champion, who finished second in 1:01.64, ahead of Lindsey Norberg (1:02.13). Notably, Scroggy posted the second-best time of the evening, with a B-final win in 1:01.58. Meanwhile, Auburn's Micah Lawrence took the women's 100 breast in a strong time of 1:09.10, just missing the world top-25, while Tennessee went 2-3 with Breanna Folk (1:09.59) and Martina Moravcikova (1:10.60).

Dynamo Swim Club swept the 800 free relays, with Taylor Schick, Kylie Stewart, Sarah Williford, and Nicole Stafford winning the women's race in 8:25.53, while Matias Koski, Dylan Templeton, Allen Browning, and Jake Stephens dominated the men's relay, posting a top time of 7:58.20.

Swimming World high school intern David "The Swim Geek" Rieder is a high school swimmer in Charleston, S.C. He swims for the Southern Marlins Racing Team and often negative splits his races. He can be found on the web at swimdr549.blogspot.com and twitter.com/david2swim.

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