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The Ave Maria Gyrenes' swim team started competing in the second annual Georgia Small Colleges Championship Thursday and opened the competition very strong. Every Ave Maria swimmer that competed in the preliminaries for the 500- and 200-yard races in the morning session qualified for the final race in the evening session at the Columbus Aquatic Center. Multiple swimmers for the Gyrenes posted season and personal bests.

The first event in the morning session was the Women's 500-yard freestyle prelim. Anna Repasi qualified for the finals in the first heat, posting a 6:16.10 time, and Sarah Hicks qualified in the third heat with a 5:53.32, tying her for third in her opening race. Hicks shattered her personal best in the opening race, besting the previous mark by nine seconds.

In the second event, Ryan Pritchard, Seth Sproule, Peter Anderson, and Francesco Salvi all qualified for the Men's 500-yard freestyle final posting times of 5:05.00, 4:59.03, 5:03.63, and 5:10.96 respectively. Sproule broke five minutes for the first time this season and qualified for the A-Final, which means he was among the eight fastest times of the 23 swimmers that competed in the event. The other three competed in the B-Final, which was for swimmers who placed 9-16 in the prelims.

In the Women's 200-yard Individual Medley, Kalia Clary and Helen Carey qualified for the B-final posting times of 2:28.28 and 2:36.91 respectively. Clary's time in the preliminary was her fastest time of the season.

In the men's version of the event, Justin Blaine qualified for the final with a time of 2:11.46, which was three seconds faster than his seeding time.

The final two Ave Maria swimmers to qualify for the evening session were Maryanna Matista and Jenna Owens in the Women's 50-yard Freestyle. Matista won her three-swimmer race in heat one with a time of 27.05 and Owens finished second in her heat with a time of 27.62.

Ave Maria did not a have a swimmer qualify for the Men's 50-yard Freestyle.

The evening session kept the order of the morning session sandwiched between two relays, meaning the individual events started with the Women's 500-yard Freestyle. In the B-final, Hicks finished second with a time that was again under six minutes, 5:53.60. Repasi finished fifth with a time of 6:04.75, which was 12 seconds faster than her preliminary time.

In the A-Final of the Men's 500-yard Freestyle, Sproule placed eighth but still broke five minutes again, posting a time of 4:59.62. In the B-final, Pritchard finished third and also eclipsed five minutes with a mark of 4:58.69, six and half seconds better than his preliminary time. It was the first time the freshman from Jacksonville, Florida, had broken five minutes in his young Ave Maria career.

In the B-final of the Women's 200-yard Individual Medley, Clarey finished fourth in the race, beating the season best time she set a few hours earlier in the preliminary with a 2:27.96. In the men's race, Blaine not only set a season or career best, but he swam the fasted 200-yard individual medley in his life with a 2:08.82.

Finally, in the B-Final of the Women's 50-yard Freestyle, Matista and Owens finished first and second respectively, with Matista beating Owens by 47 hundredths of a second.

In the relays that proceeded and followed the individual events, the Gyrenes placed near the bottom, but still earned points toward the final standings of the Championship.

After day one of competition, the Gyrenes' women's team is sitting in fourth place with 127 points. AMU is 40 points ahead of the fifth-place Thomas Night Hawks and just a half point behind the third-place Piedmont Lions.

In the men's standings, the Gyrenes have some work to do as they sit in seventh place with 60 points, 41 points behind the host Point Skyhawks.

First-year coach Alan Webb was really pleased with what he saw from his team in day one of the Georgia Small Colleges Championship. "I thought they swam amazing, [I am] so proud them for persevering through this season up to this point," said Webb. "Lots of PR's and season bests, [it's] just such a joy to see everyone reap the awards of a lot of hard work."

The Championship continues Friday with the 400 Individual Medley, 100 Butterfly, 200 Freestyle, 100 Breaststroke, and 100 Backstroke. 

Original source can be found here.