AU ROUNDUP: Swimming & diving splits with Georgia

The Auburn swimming and diving team split its meet with Georgia on Friday at the James E. Martin Aquatics Center.

The No. 5 men defeated seventh-ranked Georgia, 145-98, picking up 10 wins on the day. On the women’s side, No. 7 Auburn fell to the top-ranked Bulldogs, 134-104.

With the win, the Auburn men are 3-0 overall and in the Southeastern Conference, while the women are now 2-1 overall and in SEC competition.

“The men put together a solid performance today and I’m happy with where we are at this point of the season,” head coach Brett Hawke said. “We got to see how the women perform against the best team in the country and I feel we still have a lot of work to do. There were some solid swims overall, but there is always need for improvement.”

The men were once again led by senior Gideon Louw, who picked up two individual wins and two individual NCAA “B” standard times. Louw recorded his second-consecutive win in the 50 free, finishing first in a B time of 19.95. He followed with a first-place finish in the 100 free in a B time of 44.32.

Louw joined forces with senior Tyler McGill, sophomore Karl Krug and junior Kohlton Norys in the 400-free relay. The team finished the meet with a first-place, B time finish of 2:58.97.

Senior diver Kelly Marx also tallied two victories on the day. He opened with a NCAA Zone qualifying score of 364.72 on the 1-meter and followed with another Zone score of 420.15 on the 3-meter.

Other individual winners for the Tigers were Christopher Fox, Adam Klein, McGill and Norys. Fox recorded his first individual win as a Tiger in the 200 free, finishing in a time of 1:38.74. Klein remains undefeated this season in the breaststroke, finishing first in the 100 breast with a B time of 55.11. McGill captured the 100 fly in a B time of 47.27, while Norys won the 100 back in a B time of 48.15.

The 200-medley relay of Jared White, Michael Silva, McGill and Fox opened the meet with a win as the team came in first in 1:28.17, another B time for Auburn.

A trio of Auburn women picked up individual wins to lead the Tigers.

Sophomore diver Anna Aguero finished first on the 3-meter springboard with a NCAA Zone and personal-best score of 324.15. Senior Ava Ohlgren tallied a win in the 400 IM with a B time of 4:13.82, while sophomore Micah Lawrence recorded a B time of 1:00.62 to win the 100 breast.

Aguero finished the day with another Zone score on the 1-meter, taking third with 283.65 points. Also having Zone qualifying performances on the springboard events was Vennie Dantin. The sophomore recorded second-place finishes on the 3-meter (317.40) and 1-meter (285.45).

The Tigers tallied seven other B standard times during the meet. The 200-medley relay of Melissa Marik, Lawrence, Ohlgren and Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace opened the day with a B time of 1:40.63. Others meeting NCAA B standards were Marik in the 200 free (1:48.98) and 100 back (55.06), Katie Gardocki in the 400 IM (4:16.97) and 500 free (4:48.97) and Ohlgren in the 100 fly (54.00).

The Auburn diving team heads to Atlanta for a two-day Georgia Tech Invite today-Sunday. The entire team returns to competition when the Tigers travel to Austin, Texas, for the Texas Invitational, Dec. 3-5.

Volleyball falls at Arkansas in 5 sets
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The Auburn volleyball squad fell in a tough five-set match with Arkansas, falling 3-2 (30-32, 25-22, 22-25, 25-20, 10-15) on Friday evening.

The Tigers are now 15-14 overall and 7-11 in the SEC, while Arkansas improves to 13-16 and 7-11 in conference play.

Freshman Sarah Bullock led Auburn offensively, tallying a career-best 21 kills and finishing with 12 digs for her seventh double-double on the year. Junior Alyssa Davis recorded 11 kills and six blocks for Auburn, while classmate Morgan Johns finished with 12 kills.

Sophomore setter Christina Solverson picked up her seventh double-double of the season, recording a career-high 33 assists and tallying 13 digs. Junior Liz Crouch led the Auburn defense with 19 digs.

That mark pushes her into third all-time at Auburn with 1,193 digs in her career.

Auburn travels to Ole Miss to take on the Rebels on Sunday at 1 p.m. The match will be televised live by CSS.

Men’s tennis wins on 1st day of Fall Classic
The Auburn men’s tennis team picked up four wins on Day 1 of the Auburn Fall Classic at the City of Auburn/Auburn University Yarborough Tennis Center on Friday.

The Tigers faced Embry-Riddle, while Troy and South Carolina battled to start the day.

Redshirt junior Nick Maurillo and freshman Michael Wardell led the Tigers, each picking up wins in singles play and joining forces for a doubles win. The pair opened the day with a doubles match-up against Embry-Riddle’s Zander Woodford-Smith and David Spennare and came away with the 8-1 victory.

Wardell took on Charlie Rice in singles competition, finishing with the 7-6 (7), 6-3 win. Maurillo lost the first set to Jan Hoekzema, but battled back to win the final two sets and pick up his third win of the fall season (3-6, 6-4, 7-6).

Freshman Andreas Mies recorded Auburn’s other win of the day, defeating Peter Francis by scores of 6-4, 6-2. Mies paired with Michel Monteiro in double competition, but lost to Hoekzema and Francis, 8-4.

Junior Alex Jorne and freshman Davis Taylor faced and battled Embry-Riddle’s Charlie Rice and Luke Maricic, falling 8-6. Jorne also competed in singles, dropping a two-set match to Woodford-Smith (6-3, 6-4).

Day 2 of the Auburn Fall Classic is set to start at 9 a.m. today, as Troy will take on Embry-Riddle at the City of Auburn/Auburn University Yarborough Tennis Center. Auburn faces South Carolina at 1 p.m. Admission is free.