Men?s Swimming and Diving Heads to NCAA Championships
3/22/2006 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
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| Vlad Polyakov |
The Alabama Men’s Swimming and Diving team is sending its largest squad in over a decade to the NCAA Championship team being held in Atlanta, Ga. this week.
Head coach Eric McIlquham has nine athletes competing Georgia Tech Aquatic Center, looking for the Tide’s first top-20 finish since 1994.
“This is what we’ve been pointing to since the first day of the season,” McIlquham said. “Our entire focus has been getting as many athletes as possible to the NCAA Championships and then racing hard once we get there. We are ready and we are excited.”
Leading the charge for the Tide will be defending NCAA 200 breaststroke champion Vlad Polyakov. Polyakov, a junior, is seeded No. 1 in the 200 breaststroke and fourth in the 100. In addition to the 100 and 200 breaststrokes, he’ll swim legs on the 200 and 400 medley relays, is undefeated this season in the breaststroke events, a streak that includes the U.S. Open and the Southeastern Conference Championships. He bettered his own SEC record in the 200 breaststroke by nearly a second.
Freshman distance phenom Mark Randall will swim the 500 and 1650 freestyles as well as the 800 freestyle relay. He is seeded sixth in the 500 and second in the 1650 freestyle.
Randall broke a 20 year old school record in the mile on his way to a second place finish at the SEC Championships. Earlier this season he won the 400 and 1500m freestyles at the U.S. Open. In the 1500m he became the 23rd fastest miler in the history of the sport.
Junior Aaron Ashworth scored in all three diving events at last year’s NCAA Championships. He took third off the three-meter board and the platform at this season’s SEC Championships. He will compete off all three events again this week.
Senior Darren Erasmus, who scored in the 100 freestyle at last year’s NCAA Championships, will compete in the 50 and 100 freestyles, the 200 and 400 freestyle relays and the 200 medley relay.
And while Randall will swim the farthest, junior Apostolis Tsagkarakis will be the busiest, swimming the 50 and 100 freestyles as well as the 200, 400 and 800 freestyle relays and the 200 and 400 medley relays, giving him seven events in all.
Senior Spiros Bitsakis will compete as part of the Tide’s 200, 400 and 800 freestyle relays and the 400 medley relay. Sophomores Mike Jones and Ryan Latone will compete on the freestyle relays. Jones will swim the 200 freestyle relay while Latone will compete on the 400 and 800 freestyle relays.
Freshman Chris Perry, the lone rookie on the Tide’s NCAA squad, will swim the backstroke leg on the Tide’s 200 and 400 medley relays.
Things get started on Thursday, March 23 with the 200 freestyle relay, where the Tide is seeded eighth. Randall has the first individual race, with the 500 freestyle.
