Press Release courtesy of Georgia Athletics
The Georgia swimming and diving teams will open the Southeastern Conference portion of their schedule this week at Florida.
The meet at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center Natatorium will kick off on Thursday at 6 p.m. with women’s 1-meter and men’s 3-meter springboard diving. The swimming events and remaining springboards will take place Friday beginning at 10 a.m.
The Lady Bulldogs (4-0) are ranked No. 6 and the Bulldogs (4-0) are No. 12 in this week’s CSCAA and CollegeSwimming polls. The Gators are No. 1 in the CollegeSwimming poll and No. 3 according to the CSCAA rankings, while the Lady Gators are No. 15 per CollegeSwimming and No. 20 by CSCAA.
The Lady Bulldogs are undefeated in their last 21 conference meets with a 20-0-1 mark dating back to 2013.
“We always have competitive meets with Florida, and there’s no reason to think these will be any different,” said Jack Bauerle, Georgia’s Tom Cousins Swimming and Diving Head Coach. “We know what we’re getting when we compete against Florida. There’s great respect between the two programs. We’re excited about the challenge and the opportunity to go faster.”
For the Lady Bulldogs, Kylie Stewart ranks third nationally in the 100 backstroke, while Megan Kingsley is sixth in the 200 butterfly, Courtney Harnish is ninth in the 500 freestyle and Stephanie Peters is 10th in the 1,000 freestyle.
On the men’s side, Javier Acevedo is No. 8 in the 100 backstroke; Walker Higgins, Greg Reed and Camden Murphy are ninth in the 500 freestyle, the 1,000 freestyle and the 200 butterfly, respectively; and James Guest and Jay Litherland are 10th in the 200 breaststroke and the 400 individual medley.
The times for Stewart, Kingsley, Harnish, Higgins and Reed rank first in the Southeastern Conference.
The meet at Florida will mark Georgia’s third straight and fourth overall away from Gabrielsen Natatorium. Georgia’s next home meet will be against Georgia Tech next Wednesday at 4 p.m.