NCAA Div. I Women: Bulldogs Edge Cal By 2 Points for Bauerle’s 300th Win

BERKELEY, Calif., Oct. 25. GEORGIA'S triple defending NCAA champ Lady Bulldogs narrowly defeated Cal here this afternoon in an intersectional dual meet, 152.5-150.5. The dual meet win was the 300th for Georgia coach Jack Bauerle.

The win gave Georgia a 1-1 record on its brief, two-meet West Coast swing as the 'Dawgs fell to last year's NCAA runners-up, Stanford, 158.5-141.5,
yesterday at the Avery Aquatics Complex on The Farm.

The win also evened Georgia's seasonal record at 2-2 while Coach Teri McKeever's Golden Bears dropped to 3-1.

Georgia was paced by sophomore distance star Julie Hardt, who turned in a nice 500-1000 free double, winning in 4:53.88-9:57.19. Against Stanford she was runner-up in both races to the Cardinal's Jessica Foschi, clocking 4:55.81-9:58.77.

The 'Dawgs' Katie Yevak, a froshwoman, was also a double winner, taking the 200 fly (1:58.31) and the 400 IM (4:15.28). Her IM pr is a 4:14.91 from last spring's Speedo Championships in Fayeteville.

Not surprisingly, Cal sophomore sensation Natalie Coughlin, last season's NCAA Swimmer of the Year, was the Bears' big gun, winning a trio of races — the 100 free (49.44), 100 back (54.61) and 100 fly (53.19) — all NCAA automatic qualifying cuts.

Were it not for the fact that Coughlin just happens to hold the American-NCAA record in the 100 back, the NCAA standard in the 100 fly (not to mention the American-NCAA record in the 200 back), her times here this afternoon would all rank her well up among the all-time fastest performances' list.

As it is, however, they'll just shoot her to the top of the yearly list in all three and of course add three more marks for her on the performances' ranking sheets.

Coughlin's 100 free pr is 49.09, done last year as an age grouper. Were she to ever focus on this particular race she could likely make a run at Jenny
Thompson's American-NCAA record of 47.92 done at the 1992 NCAAs in Austin — site of next March's Championship.

(Hey, coach, let her lead off your 400 FR there!)

However, it should be noted that that was Thompson's first NCAAs — she was a freshman during the 1991-92 season on The Faarm — and she also had the advantage of having just completed the Olympic Trials in Indianapolis two weeks earlier. Give Coughlin a set of similar fortuitous circumstances and she'd challenge Janet Evans' 400-800-1500 global standards, among others.

Cal's Staciana Stitts, NCAA 100 breast runnerup as a freshman when the meet was held as a short-course meters affair in Y2K, went an NCAA auto 1:01.58
to win over Georgia senior Ashley Roby (seasonal pr 1:01.72); then won the 200 in 2:13.73 to Georgia's Lindsay Ertter's pr 2:13.91.

The NCAA auto cut here is 2:14.33 and against Stanford Roby tied the Cardinal's Tara Kirk for the win in 2:13.90. Kirk also won the 100 breast against the 'Dawgs (1:01.30) so in the space of two days the top three times in this race were recorded.

The fastest 200 breast this brief season belongs to Arizona State "rookie" Agnes Kovacs, who went 2:11.27 against Hawaii last week. Kovacs just happens to be the reigning Olympic and World Champion in the 200 meter breast, and ranks third all-time on both the world performances' and performers' lists (European record 2:24.03 to win at Sydney). The world record is 2:22.99 by China's Hi Qi earlier this year.

Cal's Alice Henriquez, a senior backstroke specialist, made the NCAA auto cut in the 200 with her 1:58.58 win — a pr by .01 from the 1:58.59 she did last season at the Longhorn Invitational in Austin during early December.

Georgia sealed the victory by going 1-2 in the meet's final event, the 400 free relay, clocking 3:22.81 with their "A" team. That's a three-second improvement over the 3:25.70 they won with against Stanford.

"I was exceptionally pleased with our team's effort," said McKeever. "So many people stepped up, including our divers [junior Christine Flynn won on the 3-meter board]. To become the best, you have to compete against the best, and it was a huge challenge for our young team to go against a team like Georgia. It was a good character check and we responded to the
challenge."

"We did what we had to do to win," said Bauerle.
"Brooke won the 3-meter diving and that was a real turning point in the meet. That set the stage for
the final two events. We had to win the 400 IM, and Yevak came through for us. Not only did we have to win the final relay, but we had to have a strong second relay, and we did that."

The victory was monumental not only to the Georgia swimmers, but also to their coach. Bauerle becomes one of a small and elite group to record 300 dual-meet victories as a head coach. Bauerle entered his 23rd year at the helm with 297 wins, and a pair of victories at North Carolina and the nail-biting win at Cal pushed the Pennsylvania native to the milestone.

"I did not even realize it," Bauerle said when he was made aware of the achievement. "I was more concerned with getting a win for the team tonight. There is only a handful of coaches that have won 300 dual meets. I am very proud of this, but I am even more proud that it has all been at one place, and that is the best place — and that's Georgia."

"(The win) was a hard-fought," said Bauerle. "We came out here on Wednesday, swam against Stanford yesterday, then traveled here for another meet today. We knew it was a big deal when the band came out. We are proud of the effort all week. This is a positive thing for both the swimmers and coaches, to see where we are right now. This is the best way to see where we
are and what we need to do."

"We had two supreme battles this week," added Bauerle. "This was the toughest back-to-back dual meets we have ever had. Steph Williams continues
to go fast in the 200 free. We got great swims from Roby and Lindsay Ertter. Julie Hardt won the 500 and 1000 free. She did a tremendous job this week."

— Bill Bell

Women's Final Score:
Georgia 152.5
California 150.5

RESULTS

Georgia at California
October 25, 2001
200 Medley Relay

1. Cal A
(Alice Henriques, Staciana Stitts, Natalie Coughlin, Danielle Becks) 1:42.94
2. UG A
(Mabry, Ertter, Yevak, Correia) 1:43.68
3. Cal B
(Yokouchi, Miller, Griffith, Harper) 1:47.85

1,000 Freestyle
1. Julie Hardt UG 9:57.19
2. Whitney Cal 10:07.25
3. Morelli Cal 10:09.48
4. Rose UG 10:22.71
5. James UG 10:24.91

200 Freestyle
1. Stefanie Williams UG 1:46.92
2. Becks Cal 1:50.40
3. Kearns UG 1:50.56
4. Hardt UG 1:51.49
5. Medina Cal 1:52.14

100 Back
1. Natalie Coughlin Cal 54.61
2. Henriques Cal 55.57
3. Mabry UG 56.61
4. Yokouchi Cal 57.63
5. Rose UG 1:04.26

100 Breaststroke
1. Staciana Stitts Cal 1:01.58
2. Roby UG 1:01.72
3. Ertter UG 1:02.82
4. Pate UG 1:04.60
5. Calder Cal 1:05.98

200 Butterfly
1. Katie Yevak UG 1:58.31
2. Sissener Cal 2:01.85
3. Buck UG 2:04.08
4. Griffith Cal 2:04.12
5. Morelli Cal 2:04.76

50 Freestyle
1. Maritza Correia UG 23.48
2. Becks Cal 23.59
S. Williams UG 23.59
4. Harper Cal 24.32
5. Kearns UG 24.33

Three-Meter Diving
1. Christina Flynn Cal 258.3
2. Bassham UG 248.85
3. Purvis UG 243.00
4. Urioste Cal 206.70
5. Borawski Cal 206.175

100 Freestyle
1. Natalie Coughlin Cal 49.44
2. Correia UG 49.89
3. Becks Cal 50.88
4. S. Williams UG 50.89
5. Harper Cal 52.68

200 Backstroke
1. Alice Henriques Cal 1:58.58
2. Yokouchi Cal 2:01.94
3. Mabry UG 2:03.56
4. Ng Cal 2:04.06
5. Barnard Cal 2:06.37

200 Breaststroke
1. Staciana Stitts Cal 2:13.73
2. Ertter UG 2:13.91
3. Roby UG 2:14.04
4. Pate UG 2:19.06
5. Rais Cal 2:22.06

500 Freestyle
1. Julie Hardt UG 4:53.88
2. Whitney Cal 4:57.13
3. Medina Cal 4:58.31
4. Fleming UG 4:58.36
5. Kearns UG 5:02.98

100 Butterfly
1. Natalie Coughlin Cal 53.19
2. Yevak UG 55.25
3. Henriques Cal 56.71
4. Buck UG 57.19
5. Griffith Cal 57.23

One-Meter Diving
1. Brooke Bassham UG 268.65
2. Flynn Cal 249.675
3. Purvis UG 225.15
4. Borawski Cal 210.06
5. Urioste Cal 206.175

400 Individual Medley
1. Katie Yevak UG 4:15.28
2. Roby UG 4:21.54
3. Yokouchi Cal 4:22.30
4. Pate UG 4:23.49
5. Ng Cal 4:23.78

400 Freestyle Relay

1. UG A
(Morgan Fleming, Maritza Correia, Stefanie Williams, Paige Kearns) 3:22.81
2. UG B
(Mabry, Permenter, Hardt, Erttner) 3:26.94
3. Cal A
(Stitts, Whitney, Mitchell, Harper) 3:29.11

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