Alabama Divers Earn Three Bids to NCAA Championships
3/17/2003 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
The Alabama Swimming and Diving teams will send three divers to the upcoming NCAA Championships after a strong showing at the NCAA Zone B Championships held this weekend in Auburn, Ala.
Junior Lane Bassham earned her third trip to the NCAA Championships while senior Katherine Bortenlanger will make her first trip. There were 12 women's bids out of Zone B. On the men's side sophomore Stewart Smith will make his second trip after earning one Zone B's 13 bids.
Bassham picked up her bid by winning the three-meter board with a score of 534.65. She also finished third off the one-meter board posting a 589.05.
Bassham was the Tide's lone competitor at the 2000 NCAA Championships, taking Alabama to a 27th place finish. After redshirting the 2001 season, she came back last season and earned All-American honors off the one and three-meter board, helping Alabama to a 18th place team finish.
Bortenlanger will be making her first NCAA Championship appearance after grabbing one of the at-large bids after finishing third off the platform posting a 430.50. She also finished 15th off the one-meter with a 519.40 and 28th off the three-meter with 245.80 points.
After spending four days in Auburn, Ala. for the Zone Championships, Bassham and Bortenlanger will turn right around and return there for the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships which gets underway March 20. The diving duo will be joined by swimmers Anne Poleska, Catalina Casaru, Kathryn Hallquist, Candace Weiman, Victoria Genova and Alison Lafevers.
Sophomore Stewart Smith, an All-American last season off the one-meter board, will return to nationals. Smith took one the Zone B at-large spots after finishing seventh off the one-meter board with 639.85 points, 10th off the 10-meter platform with 428.55 points and 12th off the three-meter board with a score of 504.30 points.
Smith will be joined by Spiros Bitsakis, Darren Erasmus, Stefan Gherghel, Vlad Polyakov, Franck Southon, Apostolis Tsagarakis and James Willcox.
The men's NCAA Championships will be held in Austin, Texas on the University of Texas campus March 27-29.
