Fresh off winning back-to-back meets last weekend against South Carolina and Tennessee, the team resumed its regular training regimen on Monday with no extended time to recover.

“The week after, we just train like normal cause it’s kind of good practice to do back-to-back meets because SEC’s and NCAA’s – they’re prelims, finals and three days long so it kind of gives us that practice while competing,” senior Erica Malagon said.

With this final meet it’s not so much about winning and losing, but more about learning as the team looks to finalize its conference and nationals rosters.

Coming off breaking the record for most consecutive home wins in Georgia history, the swim team finishes off its duel meets at Alabama. EVAN STICHLER/Staff

“Alabama is definitely one of our tougher ones of the year,” junior Martin Grodzki said. “It’s definitely important cause both the guys and girls team still don’t know what the squad is going to look like for SEC’s so it’s important for a lot of people.”

Some swimmers have already made the cut for nationals in meets throughout the season, so this weekend gives an opportunity for some of the swimmers to move around and touch up with the focus on the SEC’s in a few weeks and NCAA’s in March.

Head coach Jack Bauerle said the men’s side will have more of a challenge than the women on Saturday, so he is looking to see how some of his swimmers will do in different events.

“Just want to swim well,” Bauerle said. “I told the kids, ‘Last week we had a really good weekend against South Carolina and Tennessee, and this is our last meet before conference so you want to make it a good one and not a bad one.’”

The men ’s team from Alabama will pose the biggest challenge to the Bulldogs this weekend, while the Crimson Tide women are not as strong as they have been in the past.

Coach Bauerle has been happy with the performance of his distance swimmers throughout the year and called them the “backbone” of the team.

“Our distance kids are going to be able to dominate again with Andrew [Gemmell] and Martin [Grodzki] and Will [Freeman],” he said. “They have really given us a leg to stand on this year.”

Bauerle also said he’s looking for freshman Jared Markham to step up in the 200 backstroke, freshman Nic Fink in the breaststroke, and senior Michael Arnold in the short-distance freestyle sprints.

“Any time you go on the road, you want to swim well,” Bauerle said. “It’s a little harder cause you’re taking a trip – and we don’t go there days before – so you go there as late as you can, try to get a win and get the heck back to Athens.”

Some swimmers staying in Athens for Alabama meet

Senior Wendy Trott and freshman Amber McDermott will not be traveling with the team this weekend.

Bauerle said he wants them to stay here and train as they have both already secured their spot in nationals.

“I feel like right now for our aspirations later in the season, it’s more important for them to stay here and get more training,” he said.

Bauerle lauds freshman

Coach Bauerle has been pleased most with freshman freestyle swimmer Maddie Locus’s progression throughout this season.

Locus, who battled health problems in the fall, has turned it around since earning recognition from not only her coaches, but from the conference as well.

Last weekend against Tennessee, Locus recorded the fastest 50 freestyle time in a dual meet in school history with a time of 22.44 seconds which earned her SEC Freshman of the Week honors.

“She’s really stood up and knocked ‘em down,” Bauerle said. “She’s a very, very special young lady, she’s a great swimmer and she’s going to be a great team kid.”