The No. 5/7 Auburn men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams travel to Austin, Texas, to compete at the three-day Texas Swimming and Diving Hall of Fame Invitational at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center today-Saturday.
“This will be an exciting competition for us and it is a meet we haven’t attended in the past,” head coach Brett Hawke said. “There are tough competitors at this invite that tend to swim very fast. We are going to stick to the game plan of preparing for March so our athletes aren’t as fresh and rested as our competition. However, it will be a great chance for us to race before the upcoming holiday break.”
The Tigers will face national-contending opponents at the championship-style invite. Host Texas enters the week as the top-ranked men’s team and the fourth-ranked women’s program, while Arizona is ranked No. 3 (women) and No. 6 (men) in the country. The No. 16 Wisconsin women’s team will also take part in competition and the Badger men’s squad has received votes in the polls. Also competing in both swimming and diving are North Texas and Wyoming. UCLA, California, Hawaii, SMU, New Mexico and TCU will compete in diving only.
The Tigers are coming off a split in their meet with Georgia at the James E. Martin Aquatics Center on Nov. 20. 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. The men improve to 3-0 overall and in the SEC, while the women are now 2-1.
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.
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.
The diving team heads to Tuscaloosa for the Alabama Diving Invitational Dec. 17-19. The entire squad returns to competition Jan. 7 when the Tigers return to Austin for a dual meet against Texas.
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