Alabama Swimming and Diving Dominates Georgia Tech
1/13/2003 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
In their second meet in two days, the Alabama swimming and diving teams dominated the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, winning the men and women's meets in Atlanta by healthy margins.
The Tide women won 182-106 wile the men picked up a 160-124 victory. Alabama's women won all 16 events while the men won 13 of 16 events.
For the women, Eleanora Markou, who joined the Tide for the Spring semester, made a big splash in just her second meet wearing the Crimson and White, earning three wins, posting the top time in the 100, 200 and 500 freestyles.
Junior Anne Poleska also won three events, touching first the 100 breaststroke by nearly three seconds, the 200 breaststroke by more than 12 seconds, and the 200 IM by more than four seconds, touching at 1:03.72, 2:18.00 and 2:07.63 respectively.
Junior Lane Bassham doubled up in the win column, taking top honors on the one-meter board with 192.35 points and the three-meter with 215.80 points. Junior Catalina Casaru won the 200 backstroke with a 2:04.73
The Tide's rookies brought home eight of the Tide's 14 individual victories. In addition to Markou's three wins, Victoria Genova won the 1650 freestyle by over 30 seconds, posting a 17:46.56. She also won the 200 butterfly by two seconds with a 2:03.92. Kathryn Hallquist won the 100 backstroke by over a second with a 57.36 and Candace Weiman won the 100 butterfly with a 55.86. Anna Grant won the 50 freestyle with a 24.41.
The Tide women opened up the meet by winning the 200 medley relay by a four-second margin. Hallquist, Poleska, Weiman and freshman Alison Lafevers combined to post a 1:44.87. Alabama finished off the meet with a 15-second win in the 800 freestyle. Markou, Genova, Casaru and Grant combined to post a 7:45.17.
On the men's side freshman, Apstolis Tsagarakis also won three individual events. Tsagarakis picked up top honors in the 50 and 100 freestyles and the 100 butterfly.
Led by sophomore Stefan Gherghel, Alabama swept the top four spots in the 200 butterfly. Gherghel touching at 1:49.74 to win the event. Gherghel also won the 200 backstroke, posting a 1:51.41. Freshman Vlad Polyakov won the 100 and 200 breaststrokes at 55.13 and 2:02.52 respectively. His margin of victory in the 100 was two seconds while he won the 200 by more than four seconds.
Sophomore Stewart Smith won the one and three-meter diving events, scoring 207.15 and 203.70 points respectively for the victories.
Sophomore Spiros Bitsakis won the 200 freestyle with a 1:39.62 while classmate Franck Southon won the 200 IM with a 1:54.35.
Alabama's men won the opening relay when Gherghel, senior Charles Reeves, Tsagarakis and Bitsakis posted a 1:31.20 in the 200 medley. The Tide finished off the meet with a win in the 800 freestyle relay where Bitsakis, Gherghel, junior James Willcox and freshman JT Jones swam to a 6:54.84, nearly eight seconds better than Georgia Tech's best effort.
Alabama returns to action January 25 against Florida in its first home meet of 2003.
