AUSTIN, Texas — The Auburn women’s swimming and diving team completed day one of the 2011 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships in sixth place with 80 points Thursday at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center in Austin.

Georgia leads the competition with 129 points, followed by USC with 122, Stanford with 116 and Arizona with 99.

The Tigers earned 12 All-American honors on a day that saw junior Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace claim the school’s first NCAA title in the women’s 50 freestyle.

“It’s a great feeling,“ said Vanderpool-Wallace. “At camp to begin the season we set goals for ourselves an one was to win the 50 freestyle.  It’s great to see that accomplished. 

“It was a busy day, but totally worth it .  Tomorrow as go in as the fifth seed in the 100 butterfly so there’s no weight on my shoulders.“

Vanderpool-Wallace, who just last month set a new Auburn 50 free record at the SEC Championships, hit the wall in 21.38 to edge out Cal’s Liv Jensen (21.50). The national title is the first for Vanderpool-Wallace who is a 15-time All-American and has earned 10 conference titles.

“Tomorrow will be a big day for us,“ said Auburn head coach Brett Hawke.  “We need to come in with our game face on.  It was great to see some of the younger swimmers stepping up and, of course, to see Arianna (Vanderpool-Wallace) do what she did. It was just a huge swim. You could tell she was zoned in.“

Junior diver Vennie Dantin placed sixth on the one-meter springboard with a 12-dive total of 318.65.  The result is her best showing at NCAA’s off the one-meter and ties for her best showing ever.  The Conroe, Texas native placed sixth off the tower at the 2010 NCAA Championships in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Senior Caitlin Geary picked up seven points for the Tigers, placing second in the 200 IM consolation finals to USC’s Stina Gardell.  Geary’s time of 1:56.89 was a new season best. The Orlando, Fla., native made her way to the finals posting a 1:57.25 for a 10th-place preliminary finish.  Her finals freestyle leg of 26.93 was the third fastest of all 200 IM heats - prelims or finals.

The Auburn squad of Riordan, Bos, Li. Norberg and Vanderpool-Wallace claimed fifth in the 200 free relay, touching in at 1:28.43. Vanderpool-Wallace, who swam the field’s fastest split, repeated in finals.  The Nassau, Bahamas native swam a finals leg of 21.24, after turning in a 21.21 in morning heats.

The Auburn 400 medley relay team of Bos, Lauren Norberg, Olivia Scott and Vanderpool-Wallace placed 11th, touching in at 3:33.92.

The Tigers return to action this morning at 11 a.m. with prelims for the 200 medley relay, 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast, 100 back, three-meter diving and 800 free relay.

Softball hosts South Carolina
No. 23 Auburn will host the South Carolina in a three-game series beginning tonight at 6 p.m. at Jane B. Moore Field. Games 2 and 3 of the series will each begin at 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

The Tigers (22-4, 3-2 SEC) are coming off a pair of losses to No. 3 Alabama on Wednesday in Tuscaloosa. Auburn committed five errors in the two games leading to five unearned runs for the Crimson Tide.

“We can’t give teams additional outs by making errors,” Auburn head coach Tina Deese said. “Alabama took advantage of the mistakes we made. Now we have to move forward from that and get ready for South Carolina. They are going to come in here ready to play. Our team has been mentally strong all season and this weekend is certainly going to take that type of mentality from them.”

South Carolina (16-9, 3-4) lost a midweek double-header to No. 1 Georgia, losing 8-4 in Game 1 and 5-0 in Game 2. The Gamecocks are third in the SEC with 52 stolen bases in 25 games this season.

Auburn is 19-21 all-time against South Carolina. The Gamecocks owned the early series history between the teams, compiling a 16-3 record from 1997- 2003. South Carolina won the first seven games of the series before the Tigers picked up their first win. Since 2004, however, the Tigers have had the upper hand in the series, posting a record of 16-5 against the Gamecocks.