Tide Sends Four Women To NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships
3/17/2004 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
The Alabama women's swimming and diving team is sending four athletes to the 2004 NCAA Championships which get underway Thursday (March 18) in College State, Texas.
Two divers and two swimmers will carry the Crimson Tide banner at the championships held in the Texas A&M Student Rec Center Natatorium. This will be Eric McIlquham's first trip to the national championships as Tide head coach, though he was an Alabama assistant coach in 1994 when the Tide posted its last top-10 finish, taking ninth.
Senior All-American Lane Bassham, the Southeastern Conference one and three-meter diving champion, will contend for NCAA titles on both spring board events and is likely to be the Tide's top scorer. As a freshman, the Moultrie, Ga. native was Alabama's lone scorer, carrying the Tide to 22nd place. Bassham has scored off the one and three-meter board her first three years.
Bassham will be joined on the boards by sophomore Crystal Rasmussen, from Odessa, Fla., who is making her first appearance at the national championships. Rasmussen finaled off the one-meter at the SEC Championships and off the three-meter at last weekend's NCAA Zone B Championship.
Junior sprinter Arlene Semeco will swim the 50 and 100-meter freestyles for the Tide. She is seeded seventh in the 50m freestyle and 30th in the 100. A native of Valencia, Venezuela, Semeco is the Tide's fourth fastest 50 freestyler all-time. She ranks 10th in Tide history in the 100 freestyle.
Sophomore All-American Kathryn Hallquist is making her second trip to the NCAA Championships. She will compete in the 100m backstroke. The Palm Beach, Fla. native is ranked second all-time for the Tide in the 100 backstroke.
The divers get things started 1 p.m. Thursday with the one-meter board. Semeco will start off with the 50m freestyle on Thursday, the preliminaries for swimming get underway at 11 a.m. Hallquist will compete on Friday.
