The Emory swimming and diving teams competed admirably in their final tune-up before championship season at Auburn on Saturday, but were unable to overcome the Division-I Tigers’ overwhelming talent.

The women’s team, ranked first in Division III, fell to the eighth-ranked Auburn women by a score of 172-102, sealing its regular-season record at 6-4. The fourth-ranked men’s team capped its season record at 5-3, falling by a tally of 174-100 to the fifth-ranked Tigers.

“We had some great swims for this time of the year,” Head Coach Jon Howell said. “Our team was divided for what people were training for. Some are targeting nationals, some were resting for UAAs and some targeted Auburn as their big meet. All three groups did a great job in an environment that is exciting but also very challenging.”

The Emory women recorded 15 NCAA “B”-cut times and posted one first-place finish belonging to sophomore Claire Pavlak in the 50-yard freestyle.

The lady Eagles did their best work in the 50 freestyle, the 200 freestyle and the 100 breaststroke, posting three provisional qualifying times in each event. In the 50 free, senior Lillian Ciardelli and freshman Ann Wolber joined Pavlak as provisional qualifiers. In the 100 breast, junior April Whitley, freshman Kacie Baker and sophomore Jennifer Aronoff posted “B”-cut times of their own, and the 200 free saw senior Ruth Westby, junior Amy Minowitz and sophomore Whitley Taylor join the ranks of the provisional qualifiers.

Other provisional qualifiers in individual events included sophomores Eileen Shi (100 back) and Anne Culpepper (500 free), freshman Leslie Hackler (100 fly), Westby (100 free) and junior Liz Horvat (500 free). The 200 freestyle relay team, composed of Shi, Westby, Ciardelli and Pavlak also posted a “B”-cut time.

The men’s team’s lone swimming “B”-cut time and first-place finish came from senior John Petroff in the 100 butterfly.

The men’s divers fared better, recording two provisional qualifying scores in the 1-meter dive. Sophomores Dan Kolb and Patrick Brady finished second and fourth in the event, respectively.

“Swimming in an environment like that helps a lot,” Petroff said. “We were swimming against people that can swim faster in their events than any of the winners at the Division-III championship meet can. You can learn a lot from that, especially when we’re doing it just a month away from nationals.”

The teams host the UAA championships starting Feb. 17, as each team will attempt to earn its 12th straight UAA championship.

Both teams won last year’s event by comfortable margins (the men defeated second-place Carnegie Melon by 161 points, and the women beat second place NYU by 429 points) and each enters this year’s field with the highest national ranking of any UAA member, but Howell insists these facts will be far from the forefront of his swimmer’s minds.

“We don’t focus too much on [the rankings],” Howell said. “We keep focus on our team, performing and having fun together as a group. If we do that then everything will take care of itself. We can only control what we are doing.”

The swimmers are excited to host the school’s first UAA championship since the 2003-04 campaign, well before any of the current Eagles swimmers were a part of the squad.

“It’s going to be a fun meet,” Howell said. “It’s going to be fun to be home. Our swimmers have yet to experience a UAAs at home. It’ll be exciting and a good show for our swimmers, especially for those who qualify for the finals Saturday evening.”

— Contact Geoff Gilbert.