Special to the News

Published: March 23, 2008

SYDNEY, Australia — Auburn’s Matt Targett and Rachel Goh were back in action Sunday at the 2008 Telestra Australian Swimming Championships in Sydney, Australia.
The meet is being used as a selection meet for the Australian National Team at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Both swimmers are taking the year off from the Auburn swimming and diving team as the Olympic selection meet conflicts with the 2008 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships.

Targett had the top finish of the day as he won the 50m butterfly with a time of 23.51, beating out his nearest competition by a tenth of a second. Targett swam a 23.44 in the semi-finals to advance to the final round.

Goh’s top swim came in the 50m backstroke as she finished third in the finals with a time of 29.42, finishing behind first-place Sophie Edington (27.67). Goh swam a 29.62 in the semi-finals to advance to the finals.

She also earned another finals appearance on Sunday as she finished eighth in the 100m backstroke semi-finals with a time of 1:02.38. The top eight swimmers from the semis advance to the finals.

Men’s golf in fifth at The Hootie at Bulls Bay
AWENDAW, S.C. — The No. 14 Auburn men’s golf team carded a 2-over 286 and is tied for fifth after the first round of the Hootie at Bulls Bay at the par-71, 7,282-yard Bulls Bay Golf Club.

Jay Moseley is in a nine-way tie for seventh after leading the Tigers with a 1-under 70. Glenn Northcutt (71) is tied for 16th, followed by Jamie Bowen (72) in a tie for 22nd.  Patton Kizzire (73) and Gordon Strother (73) are tied for 34th.

“It was a good day for us,” said head coach Mike Griffin.  “It’s been real windy out here.  The winds yesterday were moving in completely the opposite direction.  That can create up to a 50-yard adjustment on some of these holes from day to day.

“For our guys who have never played this course before to come into this environment and shoot like they did — I was real pleased.”

Men’s tennis falls at Kentucky
LEXINGTON, Ky. — The Auburn men’s tennis team continued to be unsuccessful when losing the doubles point as its SEC record dropped to 3-3 after a 4-3 loss to No. 63 Kentucky on Sunday.

No 22 Auburn fell to 9-7 on the year following the loss while Kentucky moved to 7-9 and 2-4 in the SEC.

Alex Lambropoulos and Marcus Sundh started it off for the Wildcats in doubles with an 8-3 victory over Pawel Dilaj and Milan Krnjetin on court three, but Auburn was able to answer in No. 2 doubles as Tim Puetz and Lukas Marsoun defeated Will Beck and Shane Collins, 8-6.

The early point came down to a 7-3 tiebreak on court one as Bruno Agostinelli and Brad Cox took down Alexey Tsyrenov and Terence Nugent, 9-8.

Women’s golf finishes seventh at Liz Murphey
ATHENS, Ga. — The Auburn women’s golf team finished seventh at the 36th annual Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic after shooting 20-over 308 on Sunday. 

Three Tigers earned top 25 finishes, led by sophomore Candace Schepperle in seventh.

Schepperle started the day off with back-to-back birdies on seven and eight and finished the back nine with another birdie and found herself at 1-under 71. She opened the front nine with a birdie but a double bogey on two put her back at even par. 

Freshman Cydney Clanton turned in her fifth top 10 finish of the season and second straight as she tied for 10th (76-73-76—225).

Women’s tennis drops home match to Kentucky
The Auburn women’s tennis team (12-5, 3-3 SEC) lost a tough match, 4-3, to No. 23 Kentucky (11-5, 2-3 SEC) on Saturday at the Yarbrough Tennis Center.

“We knew coming in that Kentucky would be a tough match,” said Auburn head coach Tim Gray. “We didn’t get off to a good start on doubles and when you have to start singles one behind with a team like this, it makes it a tough day.”

The Tigers dropped the doubles point with losses on courts two and three. Alex Haney and Melissa Koning won 8-3 on court one, extending their conference record to 5-1.