Carolina Closes Out Invitational Appearances With Multiple Career Bests

Saturday, November 17

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Georgia Tech Invitational

Photo by: Barron Northrup

Carolina Closes Out Invitational Appearances With Multiple Career Bests

November 18, 2018 | Swimming & Diving

Complete Results Complete Diving Results Saturday Finals Results Saturday Prelims Results

ATLANTA, Ga. - The University of North Carolina swimming and diving program finished up its first team invitational of the 2018-19 season on Saturday. Both teams faced a challenging pool of competition as the women faced four other top-25 programs and the men swam and dove against five nationally ranked teams. At the conclusion of the Georgia Tech Invitational, the Tar Heel women stood sixth of the ten programs with 565.5 points and the men had tallied 369 points for eighth of nine.

Though the Heels were not able to hold onto those day two rankings, Carolina showed tremendous heart as swimmers and divers set numerous new personal records in their final chances to earn points for their teams.

Between the lanes, four Tar Heels combined for five career-best times. Junior Brooke Bauer earned Carolina's highest individual finish of the meet, claiming the runner-up title in the women's 100 free with a personal-best 48.76. Bauer's performance earned her the fifth-best time in UNC history while sophomore Caroline Hauder just missed a top ten all-time finish after she clocked a career-fastest 49.20 for 11th in the B final. With another stellar showing, freshman Sophie Lindner swam a personal-best 200 back time of 1:55.37 in the morning prelims before eclipsing that PR in the A final to finish fifth with 1:55.35 on the scoreboard. Junior Bryanna Cameron also continued to light up the pool as she took third (1:57.31) in the women's 200 fly final after setting a new career best of 1:57.10 in the prelims.

Carolina's diving squads continued to tack on points in the third and final diving competition. In the men's platform, junior Bryan Allen earned himself a seventh-place score of 308.55 points and junior Andrew Owsiany had yet another career day with a ninth-place 287.55 points. Adding a few more points to the women's team score, sophomore Emma McPeeters earned Carolina's top platform finish with a dive score of 199.00 points.

In the men's 200 breaststroke B final, sophomore Valdas Abaliksta and senior Austin Sellers made their final contributions to the Tar Heel results as Abaliksta swam 2:02.85 to tie for 16th and Sellers clocks 2:02.85 for 19th.

Both of Carolina's 400 free 'A' relays also made successful final attempts to pick up some additional scores. The women's relay of Brooke Bauer, Caroline Hauder, Grace Countie and Maddie Smith beat out Alabama's top squad to take second with a time of 3:17.26 — Carolina's fastest 400 free relay of the season. The men's 400 free relay also set a new season record for the Heels as freshman Tomas Sungaila and his personal-best 100 free time of 44.63 led sophomore Alvin Jiang, freshman Tucker Burhans and sophomore Jack Messenger to a seventh-place relay time of 2:57.49.

Wrapping up the list of Saturday's Tar Heel scorers, freshman Lilly Higgs and sophomore Allie Reiter each set season-best times in both the women's 200 breast prelims and B final. Higgs ended up 13th with her fastest time of the season (2:14.91) and Reiter placed 17th with a time of 2:15.66. Mary-O Soule followed suit in the women's 200 fly competition by swimming 2:00.87 for a new season record before placing 17th in the B final and senior Robyn Dryer took sixth in the 1650 free.

WOMEN'S TEAM SCORES: Florida - 1266, Auburn - 886.5, Alabama - 626.5, South Carolina - 593.5, Florida State - 593.5, North Carolina - 565.5, Virginia Tech - 535.5, Georgia Tech - 434, Florida Gulf Coast - 327, East Carolina - 188

MEN'S TEAM SCORES: Florida - 1224.5, Florida State - 876, Georgia Tech - 764.5, Alabama - 685, Virginia Tech - 626, Auburn - 540.5, South Carolina - 438, North Carolina - 369, East Carolina - 327.5

MEET RESULTS
Complete Results
Complete Diving Results

Day 1, Thursday, Nov. 15
Prelims Results
Finals Results
Time Trials Results

Day 2, Friday, Nov. 16
Prelims Results
Finals Results

Day 3, Saturday, Nov. 17
Prelims Results
Finals Results

UP NEXT: A group of Tar Heels will represent North Carolina at the 2018 USA Swimming AT&T Winter Nationals in Greensboro, N.C. from Nov. 28-Dec. 1. As announced by USA Swimming earlier this year, the meet will be held in long course to provide athletes an early opportunity to achieve Olympic Trials cuts. Qualifying times for the events can be found here.