FGCU S&D: Georgia Tech Invite Day Two Recap

The FGCU swimming and diving team continued to make strides in the pool Friday as they wrapped up day two of the Georgia Tech Invite at the McAuley Aquatic Center.

"Huge day for us today!" said head coach Dave Rollins. "Our relays got the energy flowing from the start and they never backed down."

It was a fast start for the Eagles in the first finals event of the evening, the 200 medley relays. Coming in with a time of 1:39.88, the team of senior Doris Eichhorn, sophomore Petra Halmai, senior Gracie Redding and sophomore Rebecca Moynihan set a new season-best time and also the fastest mark by a CCSA school this year.

Senior Christina Kaas Elmgreen achieved an NCAA 'B' time in the 100 fly A final with a swim of 53.60 for 6th place. Elmgreen was the first A finalist for the Eagles this weekend. Meanwhile, Redding also captured an NCAA 'B' mark in the B final, finishing 15th (54.21) as junior Cassidy Fry claimed 17th (54.70).

Freshman Wiktoria Czarnecka etched the 9th fastest time in school history in the prelims with a swim of 54.70 as she would place 23rd (54.88) in the C final in the evening portion. Senior Lindsay Manganiello (100 back, 58.94) and junior Karin Schienvar (100 fly, 56.09) went on to record personal-best times.

In the 200 free, senior Linda Shaw improved her prelim time by more than 1.2 seconds to place 23rd in the C final as Halmai made progress too, claiming 15th overall in the 100 breast (1:02.11).  Going into the 100 back, Eichhorn kicked to a swim of 54.50 to finish 13th in the B final as the 800 free relay team capped off the day registering a new low mark in the CCSA. seniors Antonia Baerens and Hannah Burdge, Fry and Shaw touched out in 7:24.16 for 8th overall, collecting 32 points for the Green and Blue.

"For us to have people producing lifetime best times at this point of the season is incredible," added Rollins. "Having Tina (Elmgreen) and Gracie achieve NCAA 'B' cuts is fantastic and for us to have relays close to what we did at the end of the season last year shows great growth for our program. We have one more day that is loaded with great events for us."

FGCU remained idle in the team standings, collecting 115 points on day two.

Team Standings
1. #10 Florida- 854.5
2. #12 Auburn- 602.5
3. Alabama- 446.5
4. #22 FSU- 418.5
5. #19 UNC- 396.5
6. South Carolina- 391.5
7. Virginia Tech- 375
8. Georgia Tech- 278
9. FGCU- 208
10. ECU- 127

Saturday, Nov. 17 – Prelims ESPN | Finals ESPN | Live Results
(In order of event, prelims start each day at 10 a.m. ET, finals begin at 5:30 p.m. ET)
1650 free
200 back
100 free
200 breast
200 fly
Platform diving
400 free relay