Dawgs Bark During First Day of Prelims at Women’s NCAAs

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

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By David Rieder

Even as California and Stanford entered the women’s NCAA championships as the odds-on favorites on paper, there was always one more team destined to factor into the team race. The Georgia Bulldogs always come to swim at NCAAs; just a season ago, they made the Bears work for their title even though they had entered the meet as the heavy favorite.

During the first prelim session of the meet, the Bulldogs continued the momentum they established with their big win in the 800 free relay on Wednesday night. The 200 free relay opened the morning session, and 15th-seeded Georgia blasted a 1:27.53 that ranks second in the field. And they did that despite the loss of their top sprinter from last season, Chantal van Landeghem, to an Olympic redshirt.

Olivia Smoliga, one of the top performers of the morning session, had the standout leg with a 21.47 lead-off split, but the less-heralded trio of Kylie Stewart, Meghan Raab and Emily Cameron did the dirty work. No one can be surprised that Brittany MacLean and Hali Flickinger earned the second and third seeds in the 500, but they got bonus swims they did not expect with Stephanie Peters moving up into the B-final of the 500 and Cameron doing the same in the 200 IM.

Smoliga then led the way in the prelims of the 50 free with a 21.48, and she led off UGA’s 400 medley relay that ended up tying for fourth in qualification. Cameron, Stewart and Flickinger – hardly thought of as a traditional 100 freestyler – also swam on that squad that cut a second from their time at last month’s SEC Championships.

That put the Bulldogs in position to move way up on the scoreboard from where they had been projected following night one. Price Fishback’s analysis shows that if the Bulldogs hold their seeds they will score 47 points more than the original psych sheet projections. That itself won’t be enough to catch Cal and Stanford, but the meet has two more prelim sessions to go, and both the Bears and the Cardinal took steps back in prelims on Thursday.

While Stanford’s differential was minimal, the Bears could be in trouble if the early performances are any indication. They did manage to put three in the final of the 200 IM – Kathleen Baker, Celina Li and Kelly Naze – but Elizabeth Pelton, last season’s runner-up, did not finish in the top-16, and neither did freshman Amy Bilquist in the 50 free.

The biggest body blow for the Bears, though, came in the 400 medley relay. Cal decided to give senior Rachel Bootsma the morning entirely off, which worked out in the 200 free relay as they qualified fourth, but the strategy backfired majorly in the medley, where Amy Bilquist could only muster a 51.24 lead-off split, which combined with a sluggish 1:00.26 breaststroke split from Marina Garcia left them in a big hole.

Virginia also had a difficult morning as they lost 24 points from their psych sheet projections to their seeds. Leah Smith did her part with a pool record in the 500 free, but Courtney Bartholomew and Kaitlyn Jones finished out of the championship final of the 200 IM, and Hanne Borgersen fell out of the scoring entirely in the 500 free.

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