The national swim meet is over and South Georgia State College women’s swim team has earned its fourth consecutive national runner up award in the annual NJCAA swim meet in Buffalo, New York. The Hawk women earned 567 points to again the winning team from Indian River State College. Iowa Central placed third in the women’s side of the competition. SGSC’s men placed fourth in the four-day meet to first place Indian River, second place Iowa Central and third place Southwest Oregon College.
“The meet was much more competitive, especially on the men’s side, than it has been in recent years,” commented head coach CM Jenkins. “It was great for our women to be able to keep their streak of runner up finishes alive, and I am very proud of our men for battling all week long to place fourth. All of our swimmers performed remarkably well and It was a great end to a long season.”
Sophomore female swimmers Abigail Aldridge and Lindsey Garrison got things started in the 50 fly event in Saturday’s finals. Aldridge had a fifth place finish and Garrison earned an eighth place spot. Jackson Bloom also placed in the sprint fly event by finishing seventh. Freshman Kristin Farless placed seventh in the 200 back while the Men’s 200 back saw three Hawk swimmers earn podium spots. Sophomore Ryan Buckzowski (fourth), Freshman Wyatt Dalton (sixth), and sophomore Orion Bopp (seventh) tailed over 40 points in the event. Sophomore Jessilyn Graham placed sixth in the 200 breaststroke while freshman Chris Mazier had a fifth place finish in the Men’s 200 breast. Milers Casey Hall and Anna Beth Deck also had top eight finishes in the 1,650 yard long event. Hall finished sixth and Deck was right behind her in a very close seventh place.
On day three, Graham placed third in the 100 breaststroke and reestablished her school record with a time of 1:07.14. Slidell, Louisiana native Chris Mazier, placed sixth and broke the school record in the 100 breast with a time of 56.52. Tifton sophomore Casey Hall had two podium finishes yesterday. Hall placed sixth in the 100 backstroke and eighth in the 500 freestyle. Atlanta swimmer Wyatt Dalton had a fourth place finish in the 100 backstroke while Florida natives Kristin Farless (seventh), Ryan Buckzowski (eighth) also had top eight podium places. Two 200 butterfly swimmers, Lindsey Garrison and Cali Angove, placed with Garrison finishing fifth and Angove seventh. Louisiana Sophomore Abigail Aldridge finished sixth in the 100 IM race.
The team will do some sight-seeing around Niagra Falls then fly back to Georgia tonight.