Alabama Swimmers Shine at European Championships
8/6/2002 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
Alabama Swimming's top returnees were busy keeping things on a winning track at summer's end. Anne Poleska and Stefan Gherghel, who will enter the junior and sophomore class respectively this fall, both finaled the European Championships held in Berlin, Germany this week.
Poleska is a two year All-American and four-time SEC breaststroke champion. At the NCAA Championships this past spring, she posted the fourth fastest 200 breaststroke time in the history of the sport.
Gherghel won the NCAA 200 butterfly title as a rookie, setting a school record and posting the third fastest time in the history of swimming in the process.
Poleska represented her native Germany while Gherghel swam for Romania.
"Both Anne and Stefan had tremendous meets," Alabama head coach Don Wagner said. "This certainly bodes well for the coming season. I am excited not only at their placings at this meet, but by the fact that they are continuing to drop time and improve."
In the 200 breaststroke, Poleska defeated reigning Olympic champion Agnes Kovacs by nearly a second, finishing second to Croatia's Mirna Jukic. Poleska's silver medal time of 2:27.37 was more than three seconds faster than her preliminary time.
Gherghel finished fourth in the 200 butterfly with a time of 1:57.94. The rising sophomore was fifth after the preliminary heats before grabbing the top seed coming out of the semi-finals. His semi-finals time of 1:57.13 was a career best.
In the 100 butterfly, Gherghel finished 12th in the prelim heat and 10th in the semi-finals, just missing out on the championship heat with a 53.67.
Alabama's 2002-03 season gets underway October 25 against Louisiana-Monroe.
