Members of the Emory University swim team were action this weekend competing at the Auburn University First Chance Invitational in Auburn, Alabama. The Eagles were joined in the pool across the three-day meet with swimmers from other Division I programs Auburn, Alabama, Florida, Florida State, LSU and Vanderbilt. There was no team scoring at the meet.
The Eagles had a strong showing against the Division I field, posting 24 personal-best times, 18 season-best times and totaled seven NCAA B Cut marks. Emory also narrowly missed on an additional four NCAA qualifying standards.
All seven NCAA B Cut times came for the Emory men, led by sophomores Alex Feldman and Jack Kelleher who combined to record six of the team’s seven qualifying times.
Feldman recorded NCAA B Cuts in three events over the weekend, turning in marks of 1:51.34 in prelims of the 200 IM on Friday, 3:59.79 in the 400 IM on Saturday and 1:48.08 in the 200 Backstroke on Sunday. For Kelleher, he posted times of 1:51.28 in the 200 IM, 3:55.95 in the 400 IM and 2:02.40 in the 200 Breaststroke.
Freshmen Willem Goedecke registered the seventh and final NCAA B Cut for the Eagles at the meet, touching in a time of 1:48.97 in the 200 Backstroke.
Adding near misses for NCAA qualifying times were senior Connor McCourt in both the 500 Freestyle (4:33.57; missed by .35 seconds) and 200 Freestyle (1:40.33; missed by .30), freshman Brian Hollis in the 200 Butterfly (1:50.89; missed by .04) and sophomore Catarina Sterlacci in the women’s 100 Butterfly (56.68; missed by .10).
Next up for the Eagles will be the University Athletic Association Championships in Chicago, IL. Emory looks to make it 22 straight conference titles for both the men and women when the meet begins Wednesday, February 12th.