The South Georgia State College swim teams traveled to Columbus last weekend to participate in the first annual Sun Coast Conference Swim Meet. SGSC’s women placed third in the three-day long event, while the men finished fourth. The new swimming conference is comprised of seven teams, with South Georgia State being the only team in the junior college division. None of these teams have had a conference swim meet in past years.
“These are all big four-year programs and our team placed solidly in both sides of the meet,” commented head swim coach CM Jenkins. “We were not tapered at all for this meet, but still had almost 50 percent top times and competed very well in the prelim/final format meet.” The meet helped with preparations for the NJCAA national meet which will be held in Fort Pierce, Florida in three weeks. Emanuel College and Keiser College each took first place in the meet.
Leading the women was Carrolton, Ga., sophomore Brittany Herndon. The distance swimmer set new school records in all three of her events. She placed fourth in the 500 free with a time of 5:18, third in the 200 free at 1:57 and second in the 1650 with a time of 18:16. Another Carrolton native, Jessica Dunton also had three podium finishes. Jessica placed fourth in the 200 fly and 400 IM and fifth in the 200 IM. Savannah, Ga., freshman Jessilyn Graham placed fourth in both the 100 and 200 breaststroke and another fourth in the 50 free. SGSC’s other female distance swimmer also placed in her three events. Tifton, Ga., swimmer Casey Hall placed fifth in the 1650, 6th in the 500 and kicked in a fourth place finish in the 100 backstroke.
On the men’s side, Andrew Brown led the Hawk swimmers. The sophomore captain had two sixth place finishes in the 100 and 200 breaststroke and one seventh finish in the 200 IM.
SGSC swimmers Jessica Dunton (third from left) from Carrolton, Georgia; Lindsey Graham (second from right) from Lilburn, Georgia; and Abigail Aldridge (first from right) from Lafayette, Louisiana earned podium finishes in the 200 butterfly.
The SGSC sophomores were recognized at the Sun Coast Swim Conference.