Georgia Invitational: Day Two

ATHENS, Georgia, December 6. IT was a record-setting day for the Georgia Bulldogs on the second day of the UGA Fall Invitational, held Saturday at the Gabrielsen Natatorium.

The No. 1 Lady Bulldogs earned five NCAA automatic qualifying times during the morning prelims and evening finals, in addition to the two they earned Friday night. Georgia had two individuals in the 100 backstroke and 100 breaststroke earn automatic berths in the respective events, including Mhyria Miller, whose time of 59.18 in the morning preliminary broke the pool record, and Michelle McKeehan in the breaststroke and Aleksandra Putra, owner of the school-record in the 100 backstroke by virtue of a 52.24 leadoff split in the 400 medley relay Friday night, and Kristen Shickora in the backstroke.

Also, the women's 800 yard relay team of Chelsea Nauta, Kelly McNichols, Putra, and Morgan Scroggy earned an "A" cut with a time of 6:59.59.

The women lead the field by nearly 500 points, with the Georgia Lady Bulldogs totaling 1,017.50 points. California is second (522.50), followed by Clemson (340), Denver (252), Harvard (242) and West Virginia (220).

"That's a big time pool record because we had a couple NCAA Championships here," said head coach Jack Bauerle of Miller's pool record in the 100 breaststroke. "Mhyria has come further than anyone has in our program. We are real proud of how she's done."

Meanwhile, the No. 10 Georgia men countered with eight efforts that met the NCAA provisional qualifying mark on the second day of competition. Both the 200 yard medley relay and the 800 yard freestyle relay met the standard, while Bill Cregar (400 IM), Peter Benner (400 IM), Todd McGraw (400 IM), Troyden Prinsloo (400 IM), Mark Dylla (100 butterfly) and Neil Versfeld (100 breaststroke) all met their event's provisional qualifying standard.

The men lead the field by about the same margin as the women's squad, racking up 972 points through two days of finals. Denver is second (479), followed by Harvard (393), West Virginia (366) and Clemson (342).

"Friday night was good and tonight was even better," Bauerle said. "Our group of female sophomore swimmers is pretty darn good and I was equally impressed with Dylla and Versfeld. Our freshman class of guys is going to serve us well."

Individual winners for the men included Cregar in the 400 yard individual medley with a time of 3:45.82, Dylla in the 100 butterfly with a time of 46.44, Versfeld in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 53.48 and Michael Arnold in the 100 backstroke with a time of 48.71.

Individual winners on the women's side included Wendy Trott with a time of 4:10.37 in the 400 individual medley, Scroggy in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:44.32, Miller in the 100 breaststroke, and Putra in the 100 backstroke.

In the diving well for Georgia, Webb Worthington led the charge for the men off the 3-meter springboard, notching a score of 379.15, which was good enough for second-place points. Owen Blank and Tim Barrett finished fifth and sixth, respectively. The women were once again led by Hannah Moore and Lexie Bryant, who finished 1-2 off the 1-meter springboard. Landon Watters finished fourth in the event for the Lady Bulldogs.

Special thanks to Georgia for contributing this report.

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