Nov. 24, 2013
ATLANTA, Ga. – The Vanderbilt swim team wrapped up the final day of the Georgia Tech Invitational, Sunday, in Atlanta. The Commodores took fourth place and finished with 716 points. The University of Tennessee won the women’s side tallying 1136 points over the three days. Florida Gulf Coast and Georgia Tech finished in second and third, respectively. The `Dores finished ahead of James Madison, Miami (Florida), Florida Atlantic, Clemson and College of Charleston.
“We had a really great weekend,” said head coach Jeremy Organ. “The girls had a lot of fun and swam really fast. I was really pleased with the performances all around, it was a great team effort.”
Vanderbilt had 21 swimmers advance through the preliminary session and into the finals.
The evening session began with the 200-yard backstroke. Chrissy Oberg and Chandler Soapes finished second and third, respectively, with times of 1:59.46 and 2:00.00. Alexis Mayhall and Hannah Martin also scored points for the Commodores, finishing in 14th and 16th.
Freshman Kayla Moran led Vandy in the 100 free, finishing 10th with a time of 52.14. Martin and Caroline Thomas each scored in the 100, finishing in 17th and 19th.
Elly Faulkner couldn’t break another school record on the final day of action in Atlanta, however, the junior continued her dominant swimming. Faulkner finished third in the 200-yard breaststroke posting a time of 2:16.13. Olivia Leunis finished 15th, touching the wall at time of 2:23.12. Lauren Egan dropped her season-best time by nearly seven seconds, finishing with a time of 2:20.80.
A trio of freshmen finished in the top 10 of the 200 fly for the Commodores. Moran led the group with a third-place finish, posting a time of 2:01.30. Alexandra Blankenburg (6th) and Rachel Koch (10th) finished with times of 2:02.93 and 2:04.66.
Vanderbilt finished the day with a fifth place finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay. The team of Martin, Melissa Roberts, Moran and Thomas finished with a time of 3:28.61, dropping their season best time by almost five seconds.
Vanderbilt will have over a month off before competing again. The `Dores will be back in action on January 18 for a tri-meet with West Florida and Liberty.
