Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

6 Wednesday, November 3, aoio The Red a Buck ~~r~T--TT.—-T—-T— - ~,, ~, , .. Swimming and diving looks to extend home win streak By ROBBIE OTTLEY The Rkd & Buck Sometimes sporting records are so lopsided they become outlandish. Joe DiMaggio’s record 56-game hit ting streak from 1941 may stand forever. The Atlanta Braves’ record of 14 con secutive division titles was an unparal leled accomplishment. And in 1616, Georgia Tech proved it could win a foot ball game against a team that had dis continued its football program before the season when it defeated Cumberland College 222-0. The Bulldog women's swimming and diving team may hold the Georgia equiv alent of such an asymmetric record. Since moving into Gabrielsen Natatorlum in 1995, Georgia’s women have lost only one home duel meet, a streak of 71 con secutive victories before last Friday. "I forget a lot of the wins, but you don’t forget the losses, especially when you have one in fifteen years,” head coach Jack Bauerle said. “It’s a remark able record, and it’s certainly threatened every year. This is just another threat." The last team that beat the Bulldogs at home was Florida, and the Gators were in an excellent position to break the home streak last Friday. Florida’s women won the swimming and diving national championship last year, and while Georgia’s women placed a respect able fifth at the meet, they nonetheless remained underdogs going into last week’s duel meet. “Last year they won [National Championships], they lost a few people, but they’re still gonna be tough,” sopho more Megan Romano said. But despite the expectations, Georgia won a convincing victory over Florida with a final score of 180-120 to extend the streak to 72. Highlighting the match were Georgia wins in both the 200-yard medley relay and the 400-yard freestyle relay, which helped to tip the match in favor of the Bulldogs. Romano swam backstroke in the med ley relay and was Georgia’s second swim -min' wgl 'SB : HH • . - lalira*Jßre i ' " ! '* w 'tpT"'-' 7 f •' 1 j' t \) BF&iAV \ V ml WtiUrapL m v <iM Am >IBHHKet | - > ¥ 1 1. BfeMSL ~ >u rajar private bedrooms and bathrooms, resort-style amenities, townhome floor plans available. S’ * "'W |(f s . I!VE Hffl • + IIARI ffl! UPGRADED AMENITIES • WASHERS & DRYERS • FULL KITCHENS • INDIVIDUAL LEASES • FIND US ON FACFhOOK LAKIS IPL jJj q ()b j APPLY ONLINE® mer in the free relay. But even in the races where they didn’t finish first, Romano and her teammates were able to score crucial points for the Bulldogs. “This is one of those meets where everybody has to step up,” Bauerle said. “Whether you get a fifth place Instead of a sixth or a first instead of a second, it’s pretty dam important.” Georgia’s men, however, did not fare as well on Friday. They lost to Florida by a score of 170-130 to start off their sea son with a two-meet losing streak. Nonetheless, the match saw many individual accomplishments for the Bulldogs, including junior Michael Arnold’s second-consecutive victory in the 50-yard freestyle. “I know almost from when I dive in that I can hang with this guy, if not blow him out,” Arnold said. “I’ve worked hard er than this guy every day.” Friday’s match was a positive rebound for the Bulldogs after opening the sea son with struggles against North Carolina earlier last month. The men’s team lost in Chapel Hill 183-117, and while the women’s team won a 168-132 decision, the match was much closer than either team would have liked. And though Georgia wouldn’t charac terize the performance as a positive occurrence, it nonetheless helped the Bulldogs to reprioritize entering the match against Florida. “I think we took UNC as a lesson kind of thing. We need to be more prepared, no matter who the opponent is,” Arnold said. “We’re gonna beat UNC at the end of the season.” The Bulldogs continue their season tonight with a meet in Atlanta against Georgia Tech and Emory. Because Emory is a Division 111 opponent, Georgia’s male and female swimmers will have the oppor tunity to race in competitive events out side their regular repertoire. “Some of us swim some of our third and fourth-best events ... so we usually get excited to do an event we don’t do very often,” Arnold said. “I think we’ll just approach it like any other meet.” SPOOTS *L-. • •i&Urf ■ V : * j ■ JifML v j .fa,/ M . . J WES BLANKENSHIP | Tn Ru> * Buck ▲ Wide receiver Tavarres King eaki He does not know much about the state of Idaho, but he is looking forward to Saturday’s game against Idaho State. Dogs wary of Idaho State upset By RACHEL G. BOWERS The Red & Buck Mark Richt has never been to Idaho. Tavarres King said all he knew about the state was its association with potatoes and that it’s “somewhere over there.” The Bulldogs will host the Idaho State Bengals Saturday for Georgia's third non-conference game of the season. But as the FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK Bengals come to town Saturday, the thought of an FCS team upsetting an FBS team lingers on the horizon. Richt said he won’t address that issue fully until the end of the week, but did say that he had an extra practice peri od Monday for the players to work on being in the right position during the right plays. the week gets toward start think motivation for the KING game, not so much the motivation of the practice,” Richt said. King said he's excited to play the Bengals and will learn their defensive backs' names —as he does every week so he can talk to them on the field and “let them know that I know who they are.” “It’s fun. It’s going to be a fun game,” the wide receiver said. “I’m still going to get the chance to do what I love to do, which is play football. It’ll be interesting and I’ll get the chance to meet some new people meet the guys on the other side of the ball." No comeback yet for Bulldogs Of Georgia’s five losses, three have been by a touchdown or less. In two of those losses, Georgia has come back firom dou ble-digit deficits in the fourth quarter to tie the game before eventually losing. The Bulldogs have posi tioned themselves to win games in the fourth quar ter, but turnovers and defensive breakdowns have added to the loss col umn. “We’ve had ourselves in position in the Arkansas game and the Florida game to maybe come from behind, get in position to win,” Richt said. “But get ting in that moment of truth and not making the plays that need to be made to win, so that's been a little bit of a factor too [in the losses].” Quarterback Aaron Murray said Georgia has the talent to finish out the close games, but a handful of plays have been the dif ference and the things keeping the Bulldogs from reaching their full poten tial. “We’ve come back from games, but haven’t had that comeback victory yet. We’ve either won pretty good or lost when it's real ly close where we’ve had a chance to win,” Murray said. “Every game we’ve been right in there and we feel that we’ve had the chance to win every game this year. It just hasn’t happened that way.” Grantham speaks about sideline gestures Todd Grantham made choking gestures Saturday toward Florida kicker Chas Henry, telling him he was going to choke and miss the overtime field goal. Georgia’s first-year defen sive coordinator addressed the media about it Tuesday night. “Here's what I got to say, I’m very passionate about the game. I’m very passionate about the University of Georgia being verylsuccessful as a program ... as a competitor ... sometimes you get caught up in the heat of the moment. I wish the sit uation hadn’t happened. It was a tough, hard-fought game. They won it. I’m ready to move forward and finish out the year strong.”