Swimming Races to First Place on Day One of Invitational

The Brenau University Swim Team traveled to Rome, Ga. to compete in the Berry College Viking Invitational, producing a score of 146, and leading a field that includes Berry College (87), Birmingham Southern College (123), Converse College (101) and South Georgia College (70).

The Golden Tigers captured first place in both the 200 Free Relay (1:42.05) and 400 Medley Relay (4:07.37). Distance and sprinters on the team swapped events for the evening, and sprinters dominated the 500 Free, with Mary Katherine Jabbia (Slidell, La.) leading the field in 5:30.41, and teammates Shelby Rumker (5:34.69), Talia Sola (5:40.57) and Michelle Billeaud (5:41.75) also swimming fast times.

In the 200 IM, Courtney Hayward (Townsville, AUS) touched the wall first, racing to a time of 2:15.94, while teammate Sophie Nasstrom finished second at 2:26.73.

Brenau hit high marks in the 50 Free with a second place by Billeaud (25.08), with Sola (26.27), Jabbia (26.32) and Rumker (26.42) rounding out the event.

"Being able to swim an off event this evening gave the team a new challenge, and everyone stepped up to race" said head coach Blaire Bachman."These women have stayed competitive through tough training and it's motivating with conference is only 3 weeks away. Some of our swimmers will head into a tapering phase, while others continue to push past existing thresholds".

Day two of the Invitation will continue on Saturday as the Golden Tigers look to close out the meet in dominating fashion.