The Georgia women’s swimming and diving team held true to their national ranking yesterday in Day 1 of the Women’s NCAA Championship meet at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.

The No. 2 Lady Bulldogs finished the day second in the standings with 133 points, trailing only Arizona (141.5) by 8.5 points. California (126), Stanford (105) and Auburn (91.5) rounded out the top five.

Georgia got off to a rocky start in the 200-yard freestyle relay in which it swam 1.17 seconds slower then its preliminary time, and finished in eighth place.

Freshmen sensations and Olympians Allison Schmitt and Wendy Trott quickly responded, capturing first and second place respectively in the next event, the 500-yard freestyle. Schmitt (4:35.17) and Trott (4:36.20) were followed closely by teammate Chelsea Nauta, who finished the race in fifth place with a time of 4:38.06.

The Lady Bulldogs placed swimmers in the top eight of every race yesterday, a feat that not even top finisher Arizona could claim. Morgan Scroggy finished in sixth place in the 200-y individual medley, while Ann-Marie Botek finished second in the 50-yard freestyle to the current NCAA record holder Lara Jackson of Arizona.

Jackson broke former Bulldog Kara Lynn Joyce’s NCAA meet record in the process with a time of 21.40, falling 13 hundredths of a seconds short of her current NCAA record.

The Lady Bulldogs finished the day with a 5th place finish in the 400-y medley relay with a time of 3:32.21. It was one of three events in which the NCAA record was broken, giving evidence to the fact that this should be the fastest NCAA meet in history.

The battle-tested Lady Bulldogs finishing the day ahead of both Florida and Auburn, who placed 1st and 2nd respectively at the SEC Championships in February.

If they hope to make a realistic run at the championship this year, the Lady Bulldog’s will need an all around effort to catch up to the star power of Arizona.

“We are only 60-or so points behind of what we scored a year ago so we are a much improved team this time around,” head coach Jack Bauerle told georgiadogs.com. “We couldn’t be more excited about where we are. We had a heck of a day and it’s going to be hard to hold. Stanford and Cal are breathing down our necks and we need to have a good day Friday to stay ahead. Arizona is the class of the field and we will see if we can hang around. We will know how close we can be when the dust settles tomorrow.”

Georgia opens the meet tomorrow with the 200-y medley relay, an event in which they are again seeded in the top 8.