University of Georgia Athletics
Lady Bulldogs Seek Another NCAA Title
March 12, 2012 | Swimming & Diving
March 12, 2012
ATHENS, Ga. --- A quick glance at the Georgia swimming and diving roster before the 2011-12 season was cause for concern.
The senior class from the year before had past NCAA and SEC champions in Morgan Scroggy and Chelsea Nauta, in addition to former postseason scorers in Lauren Cartwright, Courtney Monsees, Emily Montesinos, Hannah Moore and Sara Nicponski. Moreover, the Lady Bulldogs knew they would be without the services of Allison Schmitt, who decided to redshirt to train for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Schmitt owns eight NCAA and five Southeastern Conference individual and relay titles.
The class with the Herculean charge of replacing that group was a deep one, boasting 13 student-athletes, yet they were freshmen nonetheless.
Several months later, they have shown they were equal to the task as six rookies will be in the 16-woman lineup trying to win another title at the NCAA Championships Thursday through Saturday at Auburn's Martin Aquatic Center.
"I think there are five teams that can win the title, and we're one of them," Georgia coach Jack Bauerle said. "If we swim great, control what we're doing and get a few breaks, we might have a chance. And it's nice to have this chance. In September, we were not at this point because we were so young. We've grown up and we've gotten better. And the best part is we're swimming faster."
"Early in the season, things were kind of iffy because we lost a lot of seniors and we didn't have Allison," junior Megan Romano said. "We weren't sure how things were going to go. But as the season went along, we got more confidence in ourselves. Now, we're really excited about the chance to compete for the national championship."
Carrying the banner for the Lady Bulldogs at the NCAAs will be seniors Michelle McKeehan, Kristen Shickora and Wendy Trott; juniors Kelsey Gaid, Jana Mangimelli and Romano; sophomores Jessica Graber, Melanie Margalis and Shannon Vreeland; and freshmen Lauren Harrington, Maddie Locus, Jordan Mattern, Amber McDermott, Megan Molnar, Shannon O'Malley and Nicole Vernon. Georgia has the most entries in the meet at 16.
ESPN3.com will stream the finals of the NCAAs on Friday and Saturday. ESPNU will air a highlights show at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 21.
Trott will attempt to become the first four-time winner in the 1,650 freestyle at the NCAAs. Stanford's Marybeth Linzmeier (1982-84), Florida's Tami Bruce (1986-88), Florida's Mimosa McNemey (1993, 1995-96), SMU's Flavia Rigamonti (2002-03, 2005) and Trott (2009-11) are the three-time champions. At the SECs, Trott became the first woman in league history to win all four years.
Trott's 15:40.32 at last year's NCAAs made her the fourth-best performer all-time (behind Katie Hoff, Kate Ziegler and Janet Evans) and it was the fifth-best performance all-time behind Hoff, Ziegler (twice) and Evans. Hoff went 15:24.35 in 2008 to grab the top spot on both lists.
"There's some pressure (going for the fourth title in the 1,650 freestyle), but that's good," Trott said. "I try not to focus on that. The team aspect means more to me. I want the team to do well and I want us to go for a national championship. That's a bigger deal for me. That's something that's very important to all of us."
The Georgia men will compete in the NCAAs March 22-24 in Federal Way, Wash. Representing the Bulldogs will be Michael Arnold, Peter Benner, Nic Fink, Will Freeman, Andrew Gemmell, Martin Grodzki, Jared Markham and Doug Reynolds. The Bulldogs have finished in the top 10 four straight years and seven times in the last eight seasons.
