University of Georgia Athletics
A Team For The Ages
March 23, 2020 | Swimming & Diving, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
Twenty years ago, Kristy Kowal walked into the Indiana University Natatorium a little bit on edge. The pool had bad memories for the Georgia swimmer, who as an 18-year-old nearly four years earlier, in 1996, at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Indianapolis, had missed making the team in the 100-meter breaststroke by 17-hundredths of a second.
"I have a love-hate relationship with that pool," Kowal said with a laugh during a phone interview last week.
Twenty years after a near-perfect couple of days, when Georgia won its second straight national title at the 2000 NCAA Women's Swimming and Diving Championships, the love far outweighs the hate.
"It's always amazing winning an individual championship, winning a title," Kowal said, "but when you come together as a team and the team wins, I always felt that that was so much more special to me. It's just magical."
The 2000 NCAAs were a thing of beauty and joy and celebration for one of the greatest Georgia teams of all time. The Bulldogs captured the programs second NCAA title, No. 2 in what would become a three-peat the following spring, and did so in exciting and emphatic fashion.
"That might have been one of those perfect times when a great group was together at the same time," said Jack Bauerle, Georgia's Tom Cousins Swimming and Diving Head Coach.
Kowal won individual NCAA titles in the 100-meter breaststroke, 200 breaststroke and 200 individual medley, while fellow co-captain Courtney Shealy Hart won titles in the 50 freestyle, 100 free and 100 backstroke. Shealy Hart added two more titles in relays and Kowal was part of a winning relay, as well. But it wasn't just any relay.
In the 400-meter medley relay, Shealy, Kowal, Keegan Walkley and Maritza Correia McClendon didn't just place first, they set a world record. Collegiate swimmers normally compete in short-course yards races (lengths of 25 versus long-course's 50), but since it was an Olympic year the NCAA had decided that the championships would be short-course meters.
"We didn't even realize that we'd broken the world record," Kowal said. "We're celebrating winning the event and we're jumping up and down, and I think we knew that we'd broken an American record.
"We all start walking away to go back to see our coaches, and all of a sudden up on the board we start seeing 'world record' flash. We just kind of turned toward each other and jumped into each others' arms. We had no idea when we hit the wall that we'd broken a world record."
As great as that relay moment was, it was the final relay, the 400 freestyle with Hart, McClendon, Jennifer Mihalik and Stefanie Williams Moreno, that sealed Georgia's victory.
"For us, we went and did what we did every day, which was compete and race and be the best that we could be," said Moreno, Georgia's associate head coach and a member of Bauerle's staff for the past eight years.
"We had a heck of a fight — Dogs and Cats, us and Arizona," Bauerle said. "It came down to the last day and the last two or three events."
Georgia's lead over Arizona going into the final relay was such that all the Bulldogs had to do in the last race was not get disqualified and the championship was theirs. But this wasn't a group that was just going to go for a lazy swim.
"I remember (Bauerle) saying it, play it safe, all we need to do is get our hand on the wall," McClendon said. "But he knew we weren't just going to go swim up and down the pool and just cruise it, we were still going to go swim our hearts out."
That they did, not only winning the race but setting an American record.
"The team was going crazy on the side and you just had the biggest smile on your face," Moreno said.
Kowal didn't swim in that final relay, but it was memorable for her just the same.
"I've seen pictures of us cheering for that relay and what I remember is standing at one point on the bleachers, screaming and jumping up and down, and falling off the bleachers because I was screaming so hard for that relay.," Kowal said, laughing at the memory.
"And the moment they hit the wall, you feel every emotion: you're ecstatic and you're happy and you feel joy, and at the same time you're exhausted because you just swam 15 times in three days. It's just every emotion that you could feel culminated in that one moment."
The final margin was 490 for the Bulldogs and 472 for the Wildcats, according to the NCAA's website, though all of the Georgia folks I talked to remembered it as 17.5 points. Regardless, it was a tight meet in which Georgia had to be great from start to finish.
Of course, the 2001 NCAAs were even tighter, with the Bulldogs edging Stanford by just 1.5 points, 389-387.5.
That 2000 Georgia team had stars and had a lot of depth, earning critical points with podium finishes and in the B finals. Every point counts and those Bulldogs earned a lot of them.
How great were the stars, though? Consider this: Kowal, Hart, McClendon and Moreno have all been inducted into Georgia's Circle of Honor.
"That tells you a little bit about that team, right?" Bauerle said.
It was a team for the ages. Just don't tell them that it's been 20 years.
"How is that possible?" Kowal said.
"Has it been that long? It doesn't feel like it's been that long," Moreno said.
"I feel old, like, wow, it's already been 20 years," McClendon said.
The Georgia women's program has won seven NCAA titles and they're all special, all memorable, all the result of an incredible amount of work and dedication. For the 2000 team, the memories are still fresh, still capable of bringing up goosebumps despite the two decades that have passed.
"I think that was the moment when I felt like we were the biggest happy family ever," McClendon said. "I always dreamed about going to college and being part of a team that felt like a family, and sure enough I got it at Georgia. And for us to win a national title together was amazing."
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Staff Writer
Twenty years ago, Kristy Kowal walked into the Indiana University Natatorium a little bit on edge. The pool had bad memories for the Georgia swimmer, who as an 18-year-old nearly four years earlier, in 1996, at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Indianapolis, had missed making the team in the 100-meter breaststroke by 17-hundredths of a second.
"I have a love-hate relationship with that pool," Kowal said with a laugh during a phone interview last week.
Twenty years after a near-perfect couple of days, when Georgia won its second straight national title at the 2000 NCAA Women's Swimming and Diving Championships, the love far outweighs the hate.
"It's always amazing winning an individual championship, winning a title," Kowal said, "but when you come together as a team and the team wins, I always felt that that was so much more special to me. It's just magical."
The 2000 NCAAs were a thing of beauty and joy and celebration for one of the greatest Georgia teams of all time. The Bulldogs captured the programs second NCAA title, No. 2 in what would become a three-peat the following spring, and did so in exciting and emphatic fashion.
"That might have been one of those perfect times when a great group was together at the same time," said Jack Bauerle, Georgia's Tom Cousins Swimming and Diving Head Coach.
Kowal won individual NCAA titles in the 100-meter breaststroke, 200 breaststroke and 200 individual medley, while fellow co-captain Courtney Shealy Hart won titles in the 50 freestyle, 100 free and 100 backstroke. Shealy Hart added two more titles in relays and Kowal was part of a winning relay, as well. But it wasn't just any relay.
In the 400-meter medley relay, Shealy, Kowal, Keegan Walkley and Maritza Correia McClendon didn't just place first, they set a world record. Collegiate swimmers normally compete in short-course yards races (lengths of 25 versus long-course's 50), but since it was an Olympic year the NCAA had decided that the championships would be short-course meters.
"We didn't even realize that we'd broken the world record," Kowal said. "We're celebrating winning the event and we're jumping up and down, and I think we knew that we'd broken an American record.
"We all start walking away to go back to see our coaches, and all of a sudden up on the board we start seeing 'world record' flash. We just kind of turned toward each other and jumped into each others' arms. We had no idea when we hit the wall that we'd broken a world record."
As great as that relay moment was, it was the final relay, the 400 freestyle with Hart, McClendon, Jennifer Mihalik and Stefanie Williams Moreno, that sealed Georgia's victory.
"For us, we went and did what we did every day, which was compete and race and be the best that we could be," said Moreno, Georgia's associate head coach and a member of Bauerle's staff for the past eight years.
"We had a heck of a fight — Dogs and Cats, us and Arizona," Bauerle said. "It came down to the last day and the last two or three events."
Georgia's lead over Arizona going into the final relay was such that all the Bulldogs had to do in the last race was not get disqualified and the championship was theirs. But this wasn't a group that was just going to go for a lazy swim.
"I remember (Bauerle) saying it, play it safe, all we need to do is get our hand on the wall," McClendon said. "But he knew we weren't just going to go swim up and down the pool and just cruise it, we were still going to go swim our hearts out."
That they did, not only winning the race but setting an American record.
"The team was going crazy on the side and you just had the biggest smile on your face," Moreno said.
Kowal didn't swim in that final relay, but it was memorable for her just the same.
"I've seen pictures of us cheering for that relay and what I remember is standing at one point on the bleachers, screaming and jumping up and down, and falling off the bleachers because I was screaming so hard for that relay.," Kowal said, laughing at the memory.
"And the moment they hit the wall, you feel every emotion: you're ecstatic and you're happy and you feel joy, and at the same time you're exhausted because you just swam 15 times in three days. It's just every emotion that you could feel culminated in that one moment."
The final margin was 490 for the Bulldogs and 472 for the Wildcats, according to the NCAA's website, though all of the Georgia folks I talked to remembered it as 17.5 points. Regardless, it was a tight meet in which Georgia had to be great from start to finish.
Of course, the 2001 NCAAs were even tighter, with the Bulldogs edging Stanford by just 1.5 points, 389-387.5.
That 2000 Georgia team had stars and had a lot of depth, earning critical points with podium finishes and in the B finals. Every point counts and those Bulldogs earned a lot of them.
How great were the stars, though? Consider this: Kowal, Hart, McClendon and Moreno have all been inducted into Georgia's Circle of Honor.
"That tells you a little bit about that team, right?" Bauerle said.
It was a team for the ages. Just don't tell them that it's been 20 years.
"How is that possible?" Kowal said.
"Has it been that long? It doesn't feel like it's been that long," Moreno said.
"I feel old, like, wow, it's already been 20 years," McClendon said.
The Georgia women's program has won seven NCAA titles and they're all special, all memorable, all the result of an incredible amount of work and dedication. For the 2000 team, the memories are still fresh, still capable of bringing up goosebumps despite the two decades that have passed.
"I think that was the moment when I felt like we were the biggest happy family ever," McClendon said. "I always dreamed about going to college and being part of a team that felt like a family, and sure enough I got it at Georgia. And for us to win a national title together was amazing."
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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.
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