Dec. 4, 2015
ATHENS, Ga. — The Vanderbilt swim team kicked off the Georgia Fall Invitational with a bang Friday morning, as the 50-Freestyle freshman record was broken by one second in morning prelims.
Johanna Goldblatt, a native of Fayetteville, Ga., broke Kayla Moran’s 50-free record with a personal best time of 23.47. Previous to Goldbaltt’s swim the record had been untouched by a Commodore for a season and a half. Goldblatt finished first amongst the Vandy swim team, earning 25th place in a field of 57. The freshman was two seconds shy from qualifying for finals.
Two other Commodores had personal success in the 50-free as Breanna Sapienza and Kathryn Coughlin also generated personal records at 23.58 and 24.43 respectively.
Kara Lucenti produced Vandy’s additional top-25 finish of the day in the 200-IM at a time of 2:02.33. Junior, Carrie Bencic, came close to making the top-25, coming in 26th in the 500 free at a time of 4:58.40.
After a break in action, the `Dores were back in the pool Friday night to compete in relays where the squad brought in two top-10 finishes in both the 200-free and 400 medley relays.
Goldblatt, Sapienza, Moran and Hannah Martin earned a ninth place finish in the 200-free relay with the fastest time of the season at 1:33.23, four second away from the school record. One second later, Brenda Cha, Summer Brown, Madeline Hunt and Carrie Bencic finished 11th ahead of teams from Penn State, Virginia and Florida State.
VU closed out the day one placing 10th and 12th in the 400 MR. Goldblatt, Coughlin, Sapienza and Martin cracked the top-10 swimming a 3:42.99. Madison Eaker, Lucenti, Moran and Hunt followed less than a second later with a 3:43.54.
Commodores hop back in the pool Saturday morning at 8:30 am CT with preliminary swims in the 400 IM, 100 Fly, 200 Free, 100 Breast and 100 Back.
