Amber McDermott Injury Keeps Her Out of UGA Invite

Georgia sophomore Amber McDermott, who is the heir to the Bulldogs’ distance throne after Wendy Trott’s graduation, missed the Georgia Fall Invitational last weekend due to a “wrist injury,” the school confirmed on Monday. The school declined to describe the nature or cause of that injury, but did say that she is expected to make a full recovery by the time February’s SEC Championships roll around in College Station, Texas.

McDermott’s absence was noticeable for Georgia over the weekend. Last year, she was 5th in the 1650 at NCAA’s in 15:51.49. Her best swim, though, was the 500 where she took 2nd place in 4:35.09; earlier that year, she swam a 4:34.55 that is the fastest time ever swum by an NCAA freshman in the distance.

She was also 13th at NCAA’s in the 400 IM in 4:07.89; that gave her 35 individual NCAA points, and she also swam the third leg of the Bulldogs’ national title-winning 800 free relay.

The Bulldogs still fared well in the 500 at their hosted invite, taking three of the top four spots against a deep field that included defending national champs Cal. Their highest finisher in the mile, however, was sophomore Sommers Creed in 10th.

Georgia finished 2nd at last year’s NCAA Championship Meet, and with the return of Olympic gold medalist Allison Schmitt to their lineup have designs of overtaking Cal. A big win at their invitational, even without several significant swimmers, including McDermott, Hali Flickinger, Brittany MacLean, and Jana Mangimelli.