Swimming and Diving Heads to the SEC Championships
2/25/2004 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
After a brief pause, the Alabama swimming and diving season is about to hit high gear.
Nearly a month has passed since the Crimson Tide's last dual meet, and head coach Eric McIlquham and his staff has spent that time fine tuning their charges for the Southeastern Conference Championships which gets underway Wednesday (Feb. 25) in the Gabrielsen Natatorium on the Georgia campus.
The action gets started with the prelims of the 50 freestyle, with the Tide men and women having a strong entry in that race. Sophomore All-American Darren Erasmus finished off the dual meet season in a flurry, posting strong times in both the 50 and 100 freestyle. And rookie Arlene Semeco has already made her way into the Tide's record book in the sprint freestyle, becoming the seventh fastest 50 freestyler in the Tide's history earlier in the season.
Diving will also get underway on Wednesday. Senior All-American Lane Bassham will try to extend her winning streak into the post season, starting with the one-meter board. Bassham, who will face sister Brooke, a UGA diver, was undefeated off both the one and three-meter boards through the regular season. Bassham won the three-meter conference title as a sophomore and was top-three off both boards at this meet last season.
Junior All-American Stewart Smith, and the rest of the Tide's male diving contingent, will get his week started off the three-meter board on Wednesday.
The SEC Championships does not directly advance athletes to the NCAA Championships. To qualify for nationals, an athlete has to meet NCAA Qualifying Standards. But the SEC Championships is considered the fastest league meet in the country and a good placing and time is likely to be good enough to make it to the NCAAs.
And while this will be Alabama's first trip to the conference championships with McIlquham as head coach, he is very familiar with this meet, having served as a Tide assistant during the mid-90s. His stint includes the 1994 season, when Alabama posted it highest league finishes of the past decade, taking third with the women and fourth with the men.
