Georgia Men and Women Beat Alabama

The Georgia men and women scored victories with nearly identical scores over the Alabama Crimson Tide 164-128 and 164-130, respectively, Friday.

The Georgia men kept pace with the Florida Gators with some impressive swims, although they got off to a slow start, finishing just second in the 200 medley relay, the Bulldogs A relay took last in the event.

the relay was made up of three of the men who took second in the 200 medley relay at the SEC championship last season, Dale Taylor, Nicolas Fink, Michael Trice, but the graduation of Doug Reynolds opened a spot for freshman Gunnar Bentz in the fly.

Georgia had the lead going into the freestyle, but the difference came from Alabama’s Kristian Gkolomeev, who split 19.36 to Trice’s 19.92.

The slow start allowed the The Crimson Tide men to remain in the hunt early in the meet, trailing by just five heading into the 100 breast. However a one, two, three finish by the Bulldog trio of Ty Stewart, Mick Litherland, and Powell Brooks in the 200 fly was enough to distance Georgia from Alabama for the rest of the meet.

Impressive swims from the men included another one,two, three finish in the 200 free, with al three of those finisher, Jay Litherland, Alec Cohen, and Kevin Litherland, all finishing under 1:40.

The Litherland trio, Jay, Kevin, and Mick, were the stars of the show for the Bulldogs, with Kevin winning two events, the mile and the 500, Jay winning one, the 200 free, and Mick taking home two second place finishes.

Jay Litherland’s time in the 400 IM would have taken first, but he swam it as exhibition, as were all of the Georgia 400 IM and 400 free relays.

Notably absent from official results was World Championship silver medalist and NCAA 400 IM champion Chase Kalisz.

Georgia’s A 400 free relay was disqualified, but none of the swimmers splits, Nicolas Fink, Chris Powell, Alec Cohen, and Michael Trice, were under 44.5 seconds.This relay should improve as the season goes on, Trice was 43.04 at the SEC Championship, Fink was 42.88.

The Bulldogs are led by acting head coach Harvey Humphries.

On the women’s side, Georgia took the lead after a one-two finish in the 200 medley relay and never looked back, winning almost every event of the full meet lineup. The Bulldog women are now 2-0 on the season and in SEC competition and showed the rest of the conference why they have won the last five conference titles.

Georgia did not put their A 200 medley relay line up in the meet, with Chantal VanLandeghem not anchoring. The graduation of  Melanie Margalis, who swam the breaststroke leg of the relay at the SEC championship meet, gave Emily Cameron a chance to fill the hole Margalis left. The relay was good enough to win the event in 1:41.42, but the results from the meet between LSU and Florida will likely give an indication of where the Bulldogs are with the relay.

Outside of the 200 free, which was won by Alabama’s Emma Saunders, the Georgia women handled the Crimson Tide and kept pace with the Gator women’s times from last weeks All-Florida Invite, although the 50 free and 500 free were the only events that were swam at both meets.

Georgia’s Madeline Locus stayed up with Florida’s Natalie Hinds. Locus was 22.94 compared with Hinds 22.44 from finals of the invite. Locus also won the 100 free.

In the 500, Georgia’s Amber McDermott swam a 4:51.07, which would have been good for first at the All-Florida Invite prelims and third in the finals, behind Florida’s Jessica Thielmann and Cal’s Cierra Runge.

As with the men, some of Georgia’s biggest names on the roster were absent from official results, VanLandeghem most notably.

Full meet results are available here