Swimming Places Third at Invitational

At the Fifth Annual Brenau Invitational swim meet, the Brenau swim team finished third out of seventeen teams in a strong field this past weekend in Gainesville.

Lindsay Dowling led the way for Brenau by placing second in 100 backstroke (59.35), fifth in 200 backstroke (2:12.07),sixth in 200 individual medley (2:16.00) and 14th in 100 butterfly. (1:01.16). Her finish in both the 200 individual medley and 100 butterfly were both new NAIA qualifying times.

Courtney Hayward, MK Jabbia, and Alisha Hodgetts each had strong afternoons as all three swimmers earned three top-10 swim. Hayward finished second in both the 500 freestyle and the 400 individual medley, and also earned a seventh place finish in the 200 freestyle.

Jabbia placed fourth in 100 breaststroke, seventh in 200 breaststroke, and ninth in the 200 individual medley while Hodgetts also showed well, placing seventh in the 50 freestyle, 100 butterfly and 100 breaststroke. Hodgetts also added two new NAIA qualifying times in the 200 freestyle and 100 breaststroke.

Other standout finishers include Ella Kleinschmidt (second place in the mile) and Madison Kosater (tenth in the 50 freestyle).

Additionally, the 800 freestyle relay of Hodgetts, Kosater, Hayward and Kleinschmidt qualified for the NAIA National Championships as the Golden Tigers have now qualified all five relays for the 2015 championship meet.

"The team swam well this weekend in a challenging events format," said head coach Nate Rhoads. "I was happy to see so many season bests considering how hard we've been training. Now we're looking forward to getting a little bit of rest and swimming fast at SCAD."

The Golden Tigers scored 361 points and a third place finish. NCAA Division II Limestone (S.C.) College won the women's meet with a total of 901 points. Rival SCAD-Savannah placed second with 525.5 points, while Columbia (S.C.) College finished fourth with 305.5 points.

Brenau will finish the 2015 season at the SCAD Invitational on December 3rd-5th.