Over the past two weeks, the Auburn Men’s and Women’s Swimming teams went to compete at the NCAA held in Atlanta.
Coming into the meets, both teams were ranked in the top 20 with the men’s team at 16 and the women's team at 18.
However, the outcomes of the championships looked very different for the two teams.
The men's team finished 29th overall and had six All-Americans, which was the highest finish and amount of All-Americans finishers since 2018. The women's team was unable to score at NCAAs, despite sending ten swimmers.
The women were still able to set Personal Records (PR) and move up in the overall Auburn rankings. Meghan Lee, Anastasia Makarova, Avery Bargeron and Rebekah Hamilton were able to boost their 400 medley relay into the ninth overall spot in program history with a 3:31.42.
Lee was able to better her overall spots in two different strokes, the 200 Individual Medley (IM) and the 100 back. In the 200 IM, she set a PR after swimming a 1:56.72 putting her seventh overall in school history. In 100 back, it was the time she swam in the 400 relay that allowed her to move into the fifth spot overall.
Makarova now holds the fifth-fastest time in Auburn history in the 100 Breast with a time of 59.48. To cap it all off, the women had four combined individual and relay top 20 finishes.
The men's team also had some swimmers set PR and move up in the Auburn record books.
Freshman Jacques Rathle had a PR in the 200 breast with his time of 1:56.43. Another breaststroker, Reid Mikuta, had a PR when he broke his own school record set earlier this season in the 100 breast with a 51.32.
The Stoffle brothers have been teamed up and have taken the men's team by storm. They continued to impress at the championship both individually and together. They both were able to better their places in the 100 back.
Adian Stoffle, junior, moved into third overall with a time of 45.36. Nate Stoffle, freshman, moved into fourth overall after finishing just milliseconds after his brother (45.39).
Both the men's 200 & 400 medley relays were able to better their placements as well. Nate Stoffle, Reid Mikuta, Matthew Yish and Logan Tirheimer swam the 200 in 1:23.25 boosting them the third overall in history. Nate Stoffle, Mikuta, Adian Stoffle and Tirheimer also comprised the 400 medley relay and put themselves into the fifth spot in Auburn history.
Even though the overall outcome of the NCAA championships didn’t go exactly as the Tigers had hoped for, individual and relay teams still overall put up great times and continued to top Auburn program history.
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Lily has been with The Plainsman for three years and started out as a Sports Writer before becoming the Operations Editor. She graduates in May of 2024 and is from Washington, D.C.
