Florida Closes Out Georgia Tech Invite With Two More NCAA Championship “A” Cuts

jessica thielmann ncaa women's division i distance freestyle

Photo Courtesy: Mike Comer/ProSwimVisuals.com

ATLANTA – Florida closed out a strong three days at the Georgia Tech Invite, putting two more swims on the list of automatic qualifiers for the NCAA championships.

Those two swims came in the women’s 1650 freestyle and 400 freestyle relay. Jessica Thielmann scored her third win of the meet – and her first “A” cut of the season – with a 15:50.74, beating the automatic cut of 15:56.18. That’s also a lifetime best for the junior by two seconds and keeps her well ahead of the rest of the collegiate pack, though the 1650 is rarely swum outside of championship meets such as the ones swum this week and at the beginning of December. Florida placed swimmers in the top five, as Taylor Roy (16:16.55), Megan Rankin (16:28.04), Jordan Smith (16:31.08) and Autumn Finke (16:31.47) gave the Gators big points.

The second automatic cut of the meet came in the final event, the 400 free relay. Lindsey McKnight (49.76), Sinead Russell (49.10), Natalie Hinds (48.05) and Ashlee Linn (49.16) combined for a 3:16.07 to beat the standard of 3:16.41. The Gators finished well ahead of the 3:18.06 by Florida Gold Coast and the 3:18.86 by Arkansas.

The Florida men just missed out on the automatic qualifying time of 2:53.11 in the 400 free relay, posting a 2:53.21 to win ahead of the 2:55.96 by Georgia Tech and the 2:57.33 by Florida State.

Similar to the women’s mile, the men’s 1650 featured a sweep by Florida as they took the top four spots. Mitch D’Arrigo took the win with a 14:54.01, followed by Carlos Omana (14:56.61), Arthur Frayler (15:00.91) and Dan Wallace (15:16.42). In the next men’s event, the 200 back, Florida put swimmers in the top five spots. Jack Blyzinskyj posted a 1:43.70, taking the top spot in the national collegiate rankings from Ryan Murphy’s 1:43.77. Corey Main led the race through 150 yards, but couldn’t withstand Blysinskyj’s closing speed to place second with a 1:43.80. Collin Hamilton (1:46.31), Christian Homer (1:46.63) and Austin Manganiello (1:47.22) rounded out the top five for Florida.

Florida won four more events to close out the meet. Russell took the 200 backstroke with a 1:53.65, well ahead of Arkansas’ Anna Mayfield (1:54.84) and Georgia Hohmann of Florida (1:55.70). Natalie Hinds had no trouble winning the 100 free with a 47.98, just missing the automatic standard of 47.85 but good enough to be third in the country behind Chelsea Chenault’s 47.64 and Simone Manuel’s new American record of 46.62. Emma Svensson of Florida Gold Coast placed second with a 48.59 while Florida State’s Kaitlyn Dressel was third with a 48.98.

On the men’s side for Florida, Eduardo Solaeche-Gomez led four swimmers under two minutes in the 200 breast with a 1:56.16 to win it. At the time of the swim, it was the top collegiate swim of the season, beating out Nic Fink’s 1:56.74 that was, incidentally, swum in the Georgia-Florida dual meet. Jason Coombs of Florida State (1:58.92), Erik Kahr of Florida (1:59.09) and Alex Kimpel of Georgia Tech (1:59.71) all got under the big barrier tonight.

After finishing second to Caeleb Dressel in the 50 free and 100 fly earlier in the meet, Georgia Tech’s Andrew Kosic finally got a win with a 42.51 in the 100 free to Dressel’s 42.91. Kosic posted a lifetime best, bettering his 42.84 from last spring’s ACC championships. Dressel just missed out on his lifetime best, a 42.85 from last December’s junior nationals. Well back in third in the race was Pawel Werner with a 44.07.

Connor Knight was the class of the field in the 200 fly, as the Florida State senior posted a 1:44.70 that’s 2.5 seconds off his lifetime best from the NCAA championships. It was good enough to beat the 1:45.54 by Georgia Tech’s Ben Southern and the 1:47.11 by Florida State’s Cole Hensley.

Florida State also won the women’s 200 fly with Chelsea Britt posting a 1:57.45. Alyssa Yambor-Maul of Florida placed second with a 1:58.52 ahead of the 1:58.60 by teammate Taylor Katz. Arkansas’ Nikki Daniels had no peer in the women’s 200 breast, winning by three seconds with a 2:11.66. McKnight took second with a 2:14.50 while Christina Loh of Indian River scored third with a 2:14.91.

Results: Georgia Tech Invite

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