By outreach@cw.ua.edu (Cody Estremera)

Head coach Dennis Pursley has seen a lot of senior days in his career as a coach, but today was a special one. This senior class is the first recruiting class that Pursley brought in at Alabama.

“The first recruiting class is always a special one,” Pursley said. “This class put Alabama Swimming and Diving back on the map. They have made an extraordinary commitment to help change the culture to what it needed to be change to. I’m just proud of them.”

Alongside this being the first recruiting class for Pursley and his staff, his son J.J. is also on the team. This is the first time Pursley has coached one of his kids in college.

“He is one of three seniors that this was his last meet, and you always want to finish on a positive note.” Pursley said. “He finished with a personal best time. We are grateful that he had an opportunity to be part of this great program, university and athletic department. We will be forever grateful for that.”

The first time the senior class raced in a dual meet at home was against Florida State back in the 2013-2014 season. There the men lost but the women were able to come out with a 34-point win.

Alabama started off fast finishing first in each of the first eight events of the meet, leading to a 182-111 win for the men and a 170-130 win for the women.

“I was very pleased with their performance,” Pursley said. “They raced hard and they were competitive. The appreciation that the team showed for the senior class, by supporting them, made it a special meet.”

The scoring started with the relay team made up of Katie Kelsoe, Bridget Blood, Hannah Musser and Bailey Scott winning the 400-yard relay with a time of 3:42.33, a whole second better than the second place team.

The Crimson Tide swept the 200-yard freestyle on the men’s side and won the top two slots on the women’s side. Temarie Tomley won with a time of 1:49.44, almost two seconds faster than her teammate Cameron Brown (1:51.10). Laurent Bams won with a time of 1:37.87 just 0.02 seconds before his teammate Matthew Adams (1:37.89).

The men’s team swept the 1000-yard relay with Daniel Kober taking first with a time of 9:23.56, just over two seconds over his teammate Carl Madden (9:25.86). The women finished first and third in the same event with Mia Nonnenberg taking first by almost four seconds with her time of 10:03.05. Alexis Preski finished third with a time of 10:11.68.

Taylor Zablocki and Brent Sagert finished off their home Alabama careers with a win, Zablocki in the 1-meter and Sagert in the 3-meter dive.

“It was definitely great to finish my senior day with a win,” Sagert said. “It’s going to give me some confidence going into these next two meets.”

The women’s team finished strong with a win in the 400-yard freestyle relay with the team of Musser, Tomely, Lindsay Morrow and Scott.

Both teams compete in Knoxville, Tenn. for the SEC Championships starting on February 14.

…read more

Source:: The Crimson White Sports