LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The Tigers couldn't have asked for a better start to the USC Invitational. Both the men and the women set the tone early and never looked back. When the dust settled on Friday, the men owned leads in all of their duals while the women claimed the advantage in two of the three.
DAY 1 SCORES
Men
Auburn 75, Hawaii 18
Auburn 75, UC San Diego 18
Auburn 52, USC 41
Women
Auburn 78, Hawaii 16
Auburn 77, UC San Diego 15
USC 49, Auburn 44
The opening quartet of Meghan Lee, Anastasia Makarova, Avery Bargeron and Lexie Mulvihill opened the afternoon in Los Angeles with a second-place finish in the 400 medley relay at 3:34.57. Auburn's B squad of Daisy Platts, Hannah Ownbey, Claudia Thamm and Rebekah Hamilton weren't far behind to claim a handful of points as well in third.
Nate Stoffle, Reid Mikuta, Aidan Stoffle and Kalle Makinen turned heads when the men hit blocks. Their 400 medley relay time of 3:07.26 earned the Orange and Blue's first victory of the afternoon and set the wheels in motion for a big afternoon.
An event later, Emily Hetzer, Payton Marvin and Polina Nevmovenko dialed up solid swims in the 500 free. Hetzer's 4:41.56 clocked in second while Marvin and Nevmovenko each claimed top-five performances.
Head coach Ryan Wochomurka's men's distance swimmers were nothing short of on fire in the 500 free. Mason Mathias (4:18.73), Michael Bonson (4:22.17) and Mikkel Gadgaard (4:23.15) swept the event, securing a monstrous hall of points for the Tigers.
Not to be outdone, the women delivered a sweep in the 100 back. Meghan Lee, Daisy Platts and Ellie Waldrep performed the honors. Lee (52.28) and Platts (52.92) both cracked the 53-second mark.
Nate Stoffle and Lleyton Smith kept the party rolling in the men's 100 back. Stoffle snagged a 46.67 while Smith clocked in at 46.97 to go 1-2 in the event.
The women's 200 IM was highlighted by captain Hannah Ownbey and freshman Ainsley Jones. Ownbey hit the wall second at a sub-two-minute 1:59.39, while Jones' 2:03.38 was the fourth-fastest swim and almost four seconds better than her swim a week ago in Nashville.
Mulvihill capped off her afternoon with a 22.36 in the 50 free to claim second place. Teammate Emma Steckiel wasn't far behind at 22.61.
Freshman phenom Kalle Makinen brought the heat in the final event of the day. His 50 free time of 19.71 was the second fastest time of the day, beating out fellow Tiger Logan Tirheimer who clocked at 19.91
NEXT UP
Auburn will be back in the pool on Saturday morning for session two. The full schedule is listed below.
Saturday, October 15th
9:00AM: Session #2 Begins
200 Freestyle Relay
400 Individual Medley
100 Butterfly
200 Freestyle
100 Breaststroke
12:30-1:00PMish: Session #3 Begins (No earlier than 1 hour after the conclusion of Session #2)
200 Medley Relay
1650 Freestyle
200 Backstroke
100 Freestyle
200 Breaststroke
200 Butterfly
400 Freestyle Relay