Alabama-Auburn Swimming & Diving Set To Splash Friday
11/17/2004 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
For the Alabama Swimming and Diving team, this weekend will mean a triple dose of the Auburn Tigers.
Before they cheer on the Crimson Tide football team in Saturday's match-up with Auburn, the men and women's team will have their own shot at the Tigers Friday night at the Alabama Aquatic Center. The meets gets underway at 5 p.m. and admission is free.
"Auburn is a weekend that we marked on our calendar a year ago," head coach Eric McIlquham said. "It's something that we are looking forward to. Obviously their men and women are ranked one and two in the country respectively and that's exciting for us to have them coming in here."
Alabama's men are 3-1-0 overall and 1-1-0 in the Southeastern Conference coming into the weekend while the women are 4-1-0, 1-1-0. The Auburn men are 1-0 after beating Georgia last weekend, while the Tiger women lost their first dual meet since 1999 when they fell to the Lady Dogs.
Alabama's men are ranked 24th in the College Swim Coaches Association rankings while the women are just outside the top-25 and receiving votes. The Tiger men are No. 1 and the women are at No. 2. It will be the Crimson Tide's first home meet of the season.
And while they stand at different ends of the top-25 at the moment, it is a difference the Tide is chipping away at.
"We're just trying to close the gap, because that's the direction that we're heading," McIlquham said. "We're climbing our way to the top. We're just looking forward to getting them in here, having a great crowd and a great meet and competing hard."
Athletes like sophomore Vlad Polyakov, a two-event finalist at the 2004 Olympics, and senior Anne Poleska, the Olympic Bronze Medalist in the 200m breaststroke, are helping the Crimson Tide move up on the Tigers.
"We have a group of great athletes and we're going to go toe-to-toe with them," McIlquham said. "We have some athletes on our squad that among the best in the country. There will be some great races and it should be a very exciting meet."
