Brenau Swimming Finishes 2nd at Converse

Going into the second day of the Converse Invitational, the Brenau swim team sat in a close second place to host Converse (SC) College. Throughout day two, Brenau and Converse swam even until the last three events. At the end of the day, however, Converse inched by the Golden Tigers by a final score of 590-576.

The 400 Medley Relay kicked off the morning with a blazing first place finish (4:08.22) for the Golden Tigers, followed by the 500 Freestyle where Courtney Hayward (5:22.70), Bella Castille (5:33.15) and Kathleen Rossi (5:36.36) finished 1-2-3.

Talia Sola (Madrid, Spain) and Shelby Rumker (Douglas, GA) put up first and third place point in the 100 Backstroke with times of 58.86 and 1:03.50 respectively. In the 100 Breaststroke, Mary Katherine Jabbia (Slidell, LA) finished in 1:12.31, while Sophie Nasstrom (1:14.82) and Alexandria Watkins (Watkinsville, GA) (1:19.67) put up points for the Golden Tigers.

Junior Michelle Billeaud (Lafayette, LA) captured second place in the 100 Free (56.24), while Rumker placed third (56.89). Billeaud then turned around in the next race to win the 100 Fly in a fast 1:00.55.

The last individual event saw the Golden Tigers place well as Hayward (2:19.93), Jabbia (2:20.57) and Castille (2:23.68) finished 2, 3, and 5 respectively.

Brenau closed out the meet finishing 2nd and 3rd in the 200 free relay (1:43.15) and (1:47.92) and with a strong overall 2nd place finish.

"Competing against Converse is always down to each point being scored and I'm proud of our team performing under that type of pressure, especially when our team has seven least swimmers to score points," said head coach Blaire Bachman. "Our performances this weekend are good indicators of how training should progress so that we can become stronger and faster".

"Our distance group really stepped up and stole the show giving us 1-2-3 finishes, as well as our stroke and sprint swimmers going toe to toe, winning 11 of 16 events. Relays were exciting and had everyone on their feet. We will take this momentum in three weeks of training before the next dual meet against conference opponent, Asbury University."