University of Georgia Athletics
Bauerle Will Always Savor Streak
January 19, 2017 | Swimming & Diving
By John Frierson
UGAAA Staff Writer
All streaks end eventually, at least so far. Maybe the UConn women's basketball team, winners of 92 straight games, will keep going and going and going.
When streaks are monumental, as the Georgia women's swimming and diving team's home win streak was, the ending isn't an easy thing to digest.
Georgia coach Jack Bauerle needed to decompress and take his mind off of last Saturday's disappointing loss to Texas, which snapped the Lady Bulldogs' record run of 103 straight home victories. So he did what anyone that knows him knew he would do, he spent a couple of hours Sunday on the clay tennis courts at the Athens Country Club.
By late Monday afternoon, Bauerle was ready and able to move past lamenting the end of the Lady Bulldogs' staggering home winning streak — which covered more than 20 years — and instead reflect and laugh and celebrate what was a remarkable achievement.
"I'm thankful for it, but I'm not thankful that it ended. In my wildest dreams when I started coaching, I never thought of something like this," Bauerle said. "I didn't even realize this one was happening, to be honest, because you get so involved in the process. I didn't really know we had an unbeaten streak until it was in the 40s.
"You're just trying to do well [laughs], you're just preparing to swim every meet and getting the kids to swim as fast as they can for that day."
The "kids" swam as fast as they could last Saturday, Bauerle said, in their 171-124 loss to Texas, coached by Carol Capitani, a Bauerle assistant for 14 years and a close friend. Georgia came into the meet ranked No. 2 in the country, with Texas No. 5. The Longhorns are now No. 1 in the coaches' poll.
"The only good thing about it was it was against a really great team," Bauerle said of the loss. "Other than that, there wasn't anything good about it."
Bauerle said in the days after the meet he was asked on several occasions if he felt any kind of relief now that the streak had ended. No, is the short answer.
"I'll tell you, I'm not relieved at all [laughs]. I've heard that like 10 times and I said, 'No, that's one emotion that hasn't come across the radar,'" he said.
Georgia hadn't lost at home since Nov. 4, 1995, in the team's second meet ever in Gabrielsen Natatorium. The streak began a few days later, on Nov. 8, and carried all the way to Jan. 14, 2017. Much of Georgia's team wasn't even born when the streak began.
During those two-plus decades of dominance, the Lady Bulldogs became a women's swimming superpower. They've won seven national championships, including three of the last four, 12 SEC championships and almost countless individual NCAA titles.
Looking back on the streak, Bauerle said one of the most meaningful things about it was how it bound so many Georgia swimmers together. Those that swam for Georgia in the second half of the 1990s, all through the 2000s and all the way through to this season, they all shared in the ownership of something truly special and remarkable.
"After 24 hours, when I could clear my head, what an accomplishment by all of the athletes that have walked through here," Bauerle said. "It's incredible. It's one thing that they're going to hold for a long, long time. And for me, I think the beauty of it is that it binds so many people together."
Georgia beat plenty of top competition during that run of 103 in a row, with a numerous wins coming down to the final events. Asked about a win that stood out, maybe a meet the Lady Dogs probably shouldn't have won, Bauerle recalled one against North Carolina.
The meet was on Oct. 22, 2011, and it would be win No. 75 in a row, one shy of the school record of 76, set by the men's tennis team from 1968-72. If North Carolina "had believed they had us, they would have had us," Bauerle said. Georgia went on to place second in the NCAAs that year.
The Lady Dogs claimed the school record for themselves on Jan. 20, 2012, beating South Carolina for win No. 77 in a row at home. Win No. 78 came the next day, and on and on it went, the streak stretching into the 80s and 90s.
It was on Jan. 30, 2016, that Georgia hit triple digits. The Lady Dogs, ranked No. 1, easily took care of No. 17 Wisconsin (one of many, many wins over ranked teams in the 22-year life of the streak), for win No. 100 in a row.
That was a special day on the deck, Uga X even made an appearance, but nobody went too terribly nuts. Not like they did on March 19 of last year, when the Lady Bulldogs narrowly edged Stanford for the NCAA title — winning the championship in Georgia Tech's pool, to add an extra bit of joy to the moment.
There wasn't too much joy after Saturday's win or at Sunday's practice, when the team got back to work. And what about Monday?
"They were good," Bauerle said with a bit of pride in his voice. "They were very good, actually."
The Georgia men and women are in action Saturday at Tennessee and will host their final home dual meet of the season on Jan. 28, against Emory, when a new streak can begin.
John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.