Tennessee vs. Auburn

AUBURN, Alabama, November 10. THE No. 1-ranked Auburn women's swimming team won six of the nine swimming events against Tennessee on Saturday to win its season-opener, 201-146, in the James E. Martin Aquatic Center.

The Tigers carried a 94-70 lead into Saturday's events. Auburn went on to pick up 15 NCAA provisional "B" cut times, matching the 15 "B" cuts from Friday. Ava Ohlgren picked up the lone Auburn "A" cut in the meet as she won the 400 IM.

Competing in the team's first dual meet of the season and the home opener, co-head coach Richard Quick was excited to see how the team came out and competed.

"I thought the women's team was extraordinary for our first dual meet," said Quick. "They looked great and I think they put themselves in a great position to defend their titles from last year.

"It seems to me that they are ahead of schedule in their training from their performance, I'm real pleased with where they are."

Co-head coach Dorsey Tierney-Walker was also pleased with the team's performance, especially being this early in the season.

"I was very pleased for the first dual meet of the season," said Tierney-Walker. "We are a little rough around the edges on some of the details, but overall I thought we competed very well, especially for November."

Following a second-place finish in the 200 medley relay, Auburn's distance swimmers came out and dominated in the 100 free, taking four of the top five spots. Freshman Micah Martindale won the event with a time of 9:51.15 and was followed by Maggie Bird (3rd, 10:03.16), Blakeley Bunch (4th, 10:06.40) and Chelsea Haser (5th, 10:11.65).

The Tigers kept rolling in the 200 free with four "B" cut times while placing all four swimmers in the top six. Freshman Caitlin Geary won the event in 1:47.48 and was followed closely by senior Emily Kukors in second with a time of 1:47.69. Emile Ewing finished fifth, followed by Kristen Hastrup in sixth with both swimmers finishing with "B" cut times of 1:50.16 and 1:50.29, respectively.

Auburn then swept the top three spots in the 100 back with all three Tigers posting NCAA provisional times. Julianne McLane led the trio in first with a time of 55.37. She was trailed by Melissa Marik in second (55.64) and Margo McCawley in third (55.77).

Melanie Roberts continued the strong showing by the freshman class as she led Auburn with a runner-up finish in the 100 breast, posting a "B" cut time of 1:03.54.

The Tigers came in with another sweep in the 200 fly, beating out Tennessee All-American Christine Magnuson. Hastrup earned the win with a time of 1:59.16 while Ohlgren finished runner-up in 2:00.46. Both times are NCAA provisional-qualifying times. McLane rounded out the top three with a time of 2:02.71.

In the 50 free, Ewing and Denby led the Tigers by finishing second and third, respectively. Ewing led with a "B" cut time of 23.22 while Denby finished in 23.63.

Kukors and Roberts picked up another pair of "B" cuts in the 200 IM as Kukors won the event with a time of 2:02.47, followed by Roberts in second with a time of 2:03.26. Freshman Erica Meissner nearly made it another Auburn sweep as she finished fourth with a time of 2:07.42.

In the final event of the day, Auburn scored two more NCAA provisional times as two of its relay teams topped the mark in the 400 free relay. The team of Ohlgren, Kukors, Ewing and Geary won the relay with a time of 3:20.59 while the team of Alana Dillette, Hastrup, McCawley and Denby finished third in 3:23.69.

The Auburn men's and women's swimming and diving teams return to action with the "Iron Bowl" of swimming on Friday, Nov. 16 as the Tigers take on in-state rival Alabama.

"Competing against Alabama is always a great competition with so much tradition and we are very proud to be a part of such a great rivalry," said Tierney-Walker. "Alabama has gotten better and better over the past four or five years and I am looking forward to it, should be a good contest."

The meet is slated for a 4 p.m. start in the James E. Martin Aquatic Center.

Special thanks to Auburn for contributing this report.

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