The University of Georgia swimming and diving teams opened the SEC portion of it season by sweeping No. 24/25 Texas A&M Saturday at the Texas A&M Rec Center Natatorium.
The 12th-ranked Georgia women topped the 25th-ranked Aggies, 197-94, while the No. 15 men prevailed, 222-78. Saturday’s meet marked the first meeting between the programs since 2020 and first in College Station since 2016.
Georgia combined for 24 individual wins and swept all four relay races, with 16 different Bulldogs earning an individual win.
Sophomore Kennedi Dobson made her season debut with wins in all three individual races, highlighted by an NCAA cut of 4:38.12 in the 500y freestyle. She touched first in the 1,000y freestyle with a 9:30.50 and won the 200y butterfly with a 1:57.71. Dobson also anchored the victorious 400y freestyle relay (3:16.69), with a 48.75 split.
Senior Tomas Koski also picked up a trio of wins, posting an NCAA cut in the 500y freestyle with a time of 4:16.60. Koski also won in the 100y freestyle (43.09) and 200y freestyle (1:33.75). Koski led off the winning 400y freestyle relay (2:54.11) with a time of 43.29.
Junior Jacob Johnson continued to make his mark in the program record books with a butterfly sweep. In the 100y butterfly, his NCAA cut of 45.54 moved him up to fifth in program history, while his NCAA cut of 1:41.23 in the 200 fly placed him 10th overall.
The Georgia men’s diving team opened strong with all three divers earning Zone cuts on both springboards. Senior Matthew Bray won on 1-meter with a score of 334.05 and took third on 3-meter at 341.85. Graduate Renato Calderaro finished first on 3-meter with a 372.30 and fifth on 1-meter at 307.73. Junior Omar Elsayed placed third on 1-meter (321.38) and fourth on 3-meter (333.90) in his Bulldog debut. On the women’s side, junior Rin Drudge took second on 3-meter with a Zone cut of 293.18 in her Georgia debut, while fellow junior Ruth Anne McCranie also debuted with a third-place finish on 1-meter.
Freshman Virginia Hinds swept the women’s backstroke races, including a season-best 53.03 in the 100. Sophomore Hayden Meyers replicated the feat on the men’s side with season-best times in both races (47.08 in 100, 1:41.48 in 200).
Sophomore Hayden Hollingsworth earned the first two individual wins of her Georgia career, placing first in the 100y butterfly (53.80) and 50y freestyle (29.97). Freshmen Maddie Thornton (200y IM – 2:01.84) and Jude Banks (100y breaststroke – 54.00) also earned the first wins of their collegiate careers.
Junior Marie Landreneau finished first in the 200y freestyle with a season-best NCAA cut of 1:44.69, while senior Helena Jones touched first in the 100y freestyle with a season-best NCAA time of 48.33. Jones anchored the winning 200y medley relay with a final time of 1:38.24. Sophomore Elizabeth Nawrocki, also a member of the 200 medley relay, earned an NCAA cut in the 200y breaststroke with a winning 2:11.01.
Sophomore Sean Green placed first in the 1,000y freestyle with a time of 8:54.64, with other victories coming from Tane Bidois in the 50y freestyle (20.00) and Finn Hammer in the 200y IM (1:45.91).
Texas A&M’s Ella McWhorter won the 100 breaststroke in 1:00.45. Sydney Guidara won 1-meter diving (307.35) and 3-meter diving (334.88).
In the men’s meet, the Aggies got a win from Lucas Ackermann in the 200 breaststroke (1:58.18).
