Alabama Swimming and Diving Teams Open Home Season
1/22/2003 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
The Alabama Swimming and Diving teams are finally coming home.
Saturday (Jan. 25) the Crimson Tide men and women will compete in the friendly confines of the Don Gambril Olympic Pool for the first time this season. Alabama head coach Don Wagner's squads will face the Florida Gators starting at 4 p.m. Admission is free.
The Gator women are currently the nation's No. 2 ranked team while the Tide women, ranked in the top-25 much of the year, fell out in the latest rankings. The Gator men are ranked No. 6 while Alabama's men have climbed to No. 16.
The Tide's road stretch goes back to the Tide's first meets of the season back on Oct. 25 when the Tide faced off against Louisiana-Monroe.
"Our kids are excited to get back home and swim in front of our home crowd," Wagner said. "Competing in front of friends, family and Crimson Tide fans will give us a big boost going into this final stretch of the regular season."
The difference in the rankings on the women's side of the meet is largely a matter of depth, but the talent at the top of the teams' respective lineup will provide several exciting showdowns. In the 200 breaststroke Gator Vipa Bernhardt stands at the top of the current SEC rankings while the Tide's Anne Poleska is the two-time defending SEC Champion in that event. In the 200 butterfly, UF's Sara McLarty has posted a time just under two minutes while Tide rookie Victoria Genova is just behind and coming on strong.
The women's meet will feature both sprint relays with the Tide holding a decided advantage in the 200 medley relay, while the Gators have posted a faster time this season in the 200 freestyle relay.
On the men's side, the depth of the two squads is closer, and there is a chance that the Tide could take the meet down to the final relay. Some matchups to watch will be in the sprint freestyle events between the Tide's Spiros Bitsakis and Florida's Carlos Jayme. Alabama freshman Vlad Polyakov has put a great deal of punch into the Tide's breaststroke events and Saturday he will face off against senior Ian Chadsey. The two men are within half a second of each other.
The Tide and Gators are also very close to each other in the two sprint relays, which could end up making the difference in the meet.
And in the end it may be the home crowd, which this Tide team will be seeing for the first time that gives the Crimson Tide the boost they need against the Gators. For nearly half of the Crimson Tide athletes, 19 of the Tide's 47 are rookies, competing at home will be a completely new endeavor.
