Alabama Swimming and Diving Olympic Bound List Grows
6/17/2004 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
The number of Alabama swimmers that will be making the trip to the Athens Olympics this summer continues to grow.
Rising senior Anne Poleska, a five-time Southeastern Conference Champion, qualified for the German Olympic team in the 200-meter breaststroke at their recent trials by two hundredths of a second. Junior Arlene Semeco qualified for the Venezuela squad after taking second in the 50m freestyle with a 25.63 at last weekend's Janet Evans Invitational. Venezuela's team is picked by top times rather than trials.
"This is an exciting time for Alabama swimming and diving," head coach Eric McIlquahm said. "The Olympics are an incredible experience and will have such a positive impact not only on the Crimson Tide athletes that will compete in Athens, but also on the team as a whole. That kind of experience has a great ripple effect on a program."
Poleska and Semeco will join current Tide standouts Vlad Polyakov (Russia), Spiros Bitsakis (Greece) and Apostolis Tsagarakis (Greece) and Igor Erhartic (Yugoslavia) in Athens along with former UA standouts Brendan Ashby (Zimbabwe) and Stefan Gherghel (Romania).
Another former Alabama swimmer, 1992 team captain Susan Bartholomew, now Susan Williams, made her Olympic dreams come true in a different sport. Williams qualified for the United States Triathlon team at the Baker's Breakfast Cookie Healthy Start Foundation International Triathlon, grabbing the third and final spot on the U.S. squad.
Three other Alabama swimmers will compete in the U.S. Olympic Trials July 7-14 in Long Beach, Calif. Rising junior Victoria Genova and Ben Worby, a senior this past year, will be joined by 2002 captain Marcy (Warriner) Rushing.
