Alabama Shines at Swimming's 2002 World Cup
11/24/2002 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
Alabama swimming and diving sent its best to New York to take on the world's best the weekend at the 2002 World Cup and the Crimson Tide fared well.
"All in all it was a very successful meet," Wagner said. "I felt very good about our swims and performing well against the top swimmers in the world with very little rest. That is a good indication of how far our program has come and where it is heading."
Competition was held over a 25 meter course or a short course meters course. The meet, held in East Meadow, NY, features some of the world's top talent, including U.S. Olympians Jenny Thompson and Michael Phelps and World Champion Natalie Coughlin. Coughlin set three short course meters world records during the two-day meet.
"This was a much faster meet than it was a year ago," Wagner added. "And from our results here, it's obvious that we've got a lot to look forward to for the second half of this year."
Junior Anne Poleska raced to a third place finish in the 200m breaststroke, posting a 2:23.50. The SEC Record holder also took sixth in the 100m breaststroke at 1:08.34. In the 50 breaststroke Poleska finished 8th with a 32.47.
"Anne took third in the 200m breaststroke with her third fastest time ever and that qualified her for the NCAA Championships by about six seconds, so that's pretty impressive," Wagner said.
Freshman Bernardo Romero took fourth in the 1500m freestyle with a 17:06.99. Romero also took seventh in the finals of the 400m IM, swimming a 4:46.08.
Freshman Victoria Genova finaled in the 200m butterfly, swimming to a fifth place, 2:13.64 finish while classmate Candace Weiman was eighth with a 2:18.59. Genova was also 11th in the 400m freestyle with a 4:31.39.
Weiman was 10th in the 100m butterfly with a 1:01.22 followed by Genova who took 16th at 1:02.89. Weiman was 18th and Genova 19th in the 50m butterfly. Weiman took 14th in the 200m IM with a 2:21.32.
Sophomore Stefan Gherghel was sixth in the 200m butterfly, swimming a 1:56.45. He also swam to a ninth place 2:04.88 finish in the 200m backstroke.
Freshman Vlad Polyakov finished sixth in the finals of the 200m breaststroke, posting a 2:15.04. In the 50 breaststroke, Polyakov took 11th at 29.16 and in the 100 breaststroke he finished 12th at 1:03.07.
Sophomore Spiros Bitsakis swam to an eighth place 1:49.75 finish in the finals of the 200m freestyle. Bitsakis finished 15th in the 100m freestyle while freshman Apostolis Tsagkarakis finished 19th.
In the 100 butterfly, Gherghel took 10th and Tsagkarakis 11th. Tsagkarakis was ninth in the 50m butterfly, followed by Gherghel in 15th and Bitsakis in 18th. In the 50m freestyle Bitsakis took 17th while Tsagkarakis was 20th at 23.08.
Junior James Willcox finished 11th in the 400m freestyle with a 4:00.91 and 15th in the 200m freestyle with a 1:51.55.
