ATLANTA, GA – On Saturday, November 5, SCAD traveled to Atlanta to face off against Emory at the Madeleine Jude Brown Aquatic Center. After a meet with many closely-contested events, Emory improved 2-0 on the season, while SCAD fell to 0-2.
 
"Our teams did a great job this weekend practicing race plans and honing their details against these top-ranked teams," said SCAD head swimming coach Bill Pilczuk. "The Emory swimmers are a superb group of individuals to compete with, and they challenge our best athletes with great races. Most importantly, we both keep top level sportsmanship, making it one of the best meets we have on our calendar each year."
 
SCAD women made advances on their previous week's defeat to Gardner-Webb, but against Emory's #1 NCAA ranked team, it was not enough.
 
Against Emory's #1 (women) and #3 (men) ranked NCAA teams, SCAD (#2 in the NAIA on both sides) had several wins, season best times and improvements to their NAIA rankings; Joel Ax the 200 free (1:39.98) and 500 free (4:34.15 #1 NAIA); Lydia Reinhardt 100 butterfly (58.57 #2 NAIA) and 200 butterfly (2:07.11 #1 NAIA); Abigail Richey the 500 free (5:20.71); Julie Woody 100 backstroke (58.57 #2 NAIA); Joel Thatcher the 400 IM (4:06.56 #1 NAIA); and Sara Lacusky 100 Breaststroke (1:08.26 #3 NAIA).
 
These swims earned senior Joel Ax and Sophomore Abigail Richey collegeswimming.com's NAIA swimmer of the week honors. 
 
SCAD won several head-to-head swims, but there were several very close touches that the Bees narrowly lost. In the men's 1000 free, SCAD's Joel Thatcher (9:30.88) lead the whole way and was nipped by winner Christian J. Baker (9:30.86) in the final five yards. In the men's 200 butterfly, Emory's Baker (1:54.38) again out-touched senior Bee Joel Ax, who finished three-tenths of a second behind in 1:54.69. In the 200 backstroke, Thatcher (1:55.54) reached the wall less a second after Chandler S. Vandiford (1:54.56) of Emory.
 
"Both teams fought very hard against Emory in this fast-paced, long order dual meet," said Coach Pilczuk. "Many of our swimmers, like Joel Ax, Abigail Richey and Joel Thatcher, had only between two to five minutes rest between races, and managed to post great times and move up the NAIA rankings list. This shows our men and women are on the right path to fight for a title at our NAIA championships in March, 2017."
 
SCAD Swimming next travels to Gainesville, GA on November 18-19 for the Brenau Invite, hosted by Brenau University. On December 1-3, SCAD will host the SCAD Invite at Chatham County Aquatic Center.