Swimmers Shatter Relay Record
3/7/2006 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
The Alabama men's swimming and diving team shattered a school record in the 200 freestyle relay at the James E. Martin Invitational in Auburn this weekend.
Junior Apostolis Tsagkarakis, senior Darren Erasmus, sophomore Mike Jones and senior Spiros Bitsakis combined to post a 1:18.78, drowning the old mark, of 1:19.56 set by the same athletes at last year's SEC Championships. Tsagkarakis led the record-breaking relay off with a 19.84, tying his career best, which ranks him second all-time for the Crimson Tide.
The Tide four-some posted a 1:19.81 in the preliminaries of the event before putting it into another gear for its record breaking swim that night.
Alabama also posted a season-best time in the 400 freestyle relay, bettering its chances for a spot in the NCAA Championship field. Erasmus, sophomore Ryan Latone, Tsagkarakis and Bitsakis swam a 2:56.12, shaving a half second off its previous best set at the SEC Championships in mid-February.
Both relays have posted NCAA provisional qualifying standards and should earn bids to the national championships which will be held March 23-25 in Atlanta, Ga.
While the swimmers earn bids based on times from the current season, divers earn bids by qualifying at one of five regionals around the country this weekend. Alabama divers will compete at the NCAA Zone B Championships this weekend in Lexington, Ky.
