COLUMBIA, S.C. — Vanderbilt swimming faced its first SEC competition of the season Friday at the USC Natatorium, and freshmen Aubrey Hull and Emily Constable proved to be up to the task.
The former set a school freshman record and the latter recorded the Commodores’ highest individual finish in a tri-meet against host South Carolina and No. 13 Georgia. Reagan Mathieson, Kate Heintz and Bailey Ratzburg also posted performances that moved each into the top 10 on Vandy’s all-time performer list, although the Dores fell to both the Gamecocks (249-45) and Bulldogs (240-48) in the competition.
“It was a pretty solid day today for everybody,” head coach Jeremy Organ said. “The entire team had a really great attitude and level of excitement that they brought to their races today, so I think we were really successful from that standpoint. We had a good level of compete in a really tough environment.
“Aubrey and Emily had fantastic races rising up to the level of competition that we see in this conference. It was exciting to see that, but we had a lot of great swims up and down the board. We’re looking forward to taking the next couple of weeks to get ready for Illinois.”
Meet Highlights
-In the 100 breast, Constable touched the wall third.
-Hull recorded fourth-place results in the 100 and 200 back.
-Both were in the lineup—along with Jenna Ravarino and Megan Ciezczak—as the Commodores’ 200 medley relay team placed in the top five.
Notes
-Hull’s time of 1:58.35 set the school freshman record in the 200 back.
-With her performances Hull now ranks second and fourth, respectively, on the Dores’ all-time performer list in the 200 and 100 back after meeting the CSCAA NIC B standard in each event.
-The freshman also achieved the CSCAA NIC A cut in the 50 back, moving up to sixth place on the Commodores’ all-time performer list with a 25.53 mark in the 50 back leading off the 200 medley relay.
-In the 200 free, Mathieson touched the wall in a Vandy season-best 1:50.31 to both climb into seventh on the school’s all-time performer list and meet the NIC B standard in the event.
-Constable now stands seventh all time at Vanderbilt in the 200 breast (2:16.16) and is eighth in the 100 breast (1:02.37), with the freshman’s opening 50 split in the latter race ranking third in program history as she met the NIC B cut at all three distances.
-Madelyn Porter posted a career-best time of 10:21.37 to move into eighth place on the all-time performer list in the 1,000 free.
-Not only did Ratzburg set a career-best with a 2:04.59 mark in the 200 IM, she moved into ninth on the Dores’ all-time performer list in the event with the effort.
-Heintz entered the top 10 all-time at Vanderbilt with a career-best 2:02.31 in the 200 fly, as both she and Kailia Utley (2:02.20) achieved the NIC B standard in the race.
-Mercedes Traba posted the fastest time of her collegiate career in the 200 free after finishing the race in 1:51.19, lowering a mark set in the same pool nearly a year ago at the Gamecock Invitational.
