By outreach@cw.ua.edu (James Fletcher)
Alabama swimming and diving set two school records on first day of the Southeastern Conference Championships, hosted by Texas A&M.
The first day of events featured a pair of relays for the men and women. The Crimson tide made a podium finish in the men’s 200 medley relay, taking third place with a season best performance from senior Luke Kaliszak, junior Laurent Bams, sophomore Zane Waddell and junior Robert Howard.
In the women’s 200 medley relay, juniors Katie Kelsoe and Justine Macfarlane, along with freshman Flora Molnar and senior Bailey Scott finished fourth, setting a new school record in the event.
Both the men’s and women’s relays earned an automatic bid to the national championships.
“We started out with really solid races in the 200 relays.” head coach Dennis Pursley said in a press release. “The women set a school record and made the NCAA A cut, which they did not have coming into this meet. The men already had an A time but they lowered their season-best time by over a second so those were good swims to start things off with.”
Freshman Leonie Kullmann set a 200 freestyle record to lead off the women’s 800 freestyle relay. Fellow freshmen Lydia Jackson and Julia Kukla, along with senior Mia Nonnenberg combined for a ninth place finish.
In the men’s 800 freestyle relay of seniors Matthew Adams, Christopher Reid and Will Freeman combined with junior Christian Arseneau to finish ninth.
Thursday will be the first full day of competition, with prelims starting at 10 a.m. CT and finals beginning at 6 p.m. Thursday’s events include men’s and women’s 500 freestyle, 200 individual medley and 50 freestyle and the men’s 1-meter springboard dive.
Source:: The Crimson White Sports
