Tide's Stewart Smith Third at NCAA Championships
3/24/2005 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
On the strength of senior Stewart Smith's third place finish off the one-meter board, Alabama is 13th after day one of the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships in Minneapolis, Minn.
"We had a strong first day and now we have to keep it going," Alabama head coach Eric McIlquham said. "Stewart looked really good out there tonight. He did a good job. Now we just need to build on today and finish strong."
Auburn leads the team race, followed by Arizona, Cal-Berkeley, Stanford and Florida. The Tide has 32 points and is just three points out of 12th.
Smith scored 377.75 points to take the highest national finish of his career so far. He was fifth after the preliminaries with 325.30 points. Junior Aaron Ashworth also scored off the one-meter, taking 11th place with 306.40 points.
The 400 medley relay of senior Franck Southon, sophomore Vlad Polyakov, sophomore Apostolis Tsagkarakis and junior Darren Erasmus took 12th place with a 3:14.58, moving them up one place from prelims.
Action continues Friday. Polyakov, who finished second in the 200 breaststroke as a rookie, will go for gold in the 100 breaststroke where he is seeded second. Smith and Ashworth will both compete off the three-meter board as well.
