Golden Tigers Swimming Wins Relays

Brenau Swimming traveled to the Birmingham Crossplex for the BSC Panther Relays. Teams in attendance included Birmingham Southern College, University of West Florida, LaGrange College, University of the South, Bethel University and Emmanuel College.

The Golden Tigers won two relays of the afternoon- the 1000 freestyle and 200 medley relays. In the 1000 Freestyle, Courtney Hayward (Townsville, Aus.) led with a split of 5:24 and followed by Bella Castille (Lafayette, LA) with a 5:29 split. Relay members Talia Sola (Madrid, Spain), Mary Katherine Jabbia (Slidell, LA), Michelle Billeaud (Lafayette, LA) and Sophie Nasstrom (Sweden) then carried their undefeated winning streak over into the 200 Medley Relay with a time of 1:50.97.

Individually, Sola had the race of the day breaking the school record in the 100 backstroke in 58.07. Brenau produced four new NAIA "A" Cuts, with 50 freestyle lead off splits from Jabbia (25.71) and Nasstrom (25.78), along with Hayward's 200 freestyle split (2:01.86), and the 800 freestyle relay (8:23.10) of Hayward, Castille, Watkins and Rumker.

Other relay results include a 2nd place in the 200 freestyle relay (1:42.64), 2nd place in the 300 backstroke relay (3:02.08), 3rd place in the 300 breaststroke relay (3:43.21), 2nd place in the 300 IM Relay (3:15.60) and 2nd Place in the 300 fly relay (3:07.79).

"We had a great meet, got up and raced fast teams and took either 1st or 2nd in every relay. This team has such positive energy and it adds to the overall effort and result of our races," commented head coach Blaire Bachman. "Seeing our girls challenge themselves to faster swims at each meet is good to see, we are making great progress and its fuels the desire to meet and exceed the team goals that were set back in August. We look forward to training hard for the next two weeks before swimming conference opponent Asbury, which will be a fast meet to watch."