Georgia Tech Invitational Brings SEC Powers Together

Photo Courtesy: University of Georgia Tech Athletics

By Dan D’Addona

After several epic dual meets between SEC powers the past couple of weeks, many of the conference’s top teams will all meet at the Georgia Tech Invitational.

The meet runs Thursday-Saturday at the McAuley Aquatic Center with prelims at 10 a.m. ET each day and finals at 5:30 p.m.

Joining the host Yellow Jackets (No. 24 men) are SEC powers Alabama (No. 8 men, No. 28 women), Auburn, Florida (No. 9 men, No. 16 women) as well as Arkansas and South Carolina. Auburn (No. 11) and Arkansas are just participating in the women’s meet, as are Georgia Southern and Florida Gulf Coast.

East Carolina and Campbell also will be swimming in the men’s and women’s meets.

Meanwhile, BYU and Clemson will be participating in the diving portion of the meet.

The Auburn women are coming off their first loss of the season, falling to Tennessee. Freshman Julie Meynen has proved to be a swimmer to watch this season. She is undefeated in the 100 freestyle and making her mark in the 50 as well.

Meanwhile, Alabama hasn’t competed since the men were edged by rival Auburn two weeks ago. The Auburn women won handily and will look to keep that trend going at the invitational.

Florida has had its ups and downs this season and this meet could be pivotal to their season confidence-wise. The Gators could use a strong performance here to springboard themselves into the holidays knowing they performed at a high level against many of the top SEC teams.

That will be the goal for all of the teams at the invitational, especially the SEC teams. It seems like every SEC meet is bigger than a dual meet, some sort of rivalry showdown, and this meet is packed with them. It could be a good preview of what is to come at the SEC meet

And don’t count host Georgia Tech out, either. The Yellow Jackets have one of the top men’s teams in the country and will look to defend their home pool.

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