Swimming Duo Wins Six Individual Events in Home Opener
11/2/2007 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. ?? The Alabama women’s swimming and diving team split with Southeastern Conference foes LSU and Vanderbilt Friday afternoon at the Alabama Aquatic Center, bettering the Commodores and falling to the Tigers.
It marked the opening of the Tide’s home and Southeastern Conference slate. The Tide women beat Vanderbilt 245-48 and lost to LSU 173-127. Alabama’s men opened at home with a loss to LSU, its first to the Tigers since 2000, 194-106.
Alabama senior Erin Sparks and sophomore Agustina de Giovanni highlighted the women’s meet winning a trio of individual events and leading Alabama to a relay win in the final event of the day.
“Another huge night for Erin Sparks and Agustina de Giovanni, each winning four races on the night,” McIlquham said. “Erin coming out of the 200 IM and five minutes later turning in a 51 in the 100 freestyle was pretty amazing.”
Sparks won the 200 IM with a 2:04.17 before anchoring the 400 freestyle relay of freshman Ida Persson, junior Vanessa Von der Heyde and de Giovanni to a half-second win over the Tigers 3:26.29 to 2:26.79. Earlier in the evening she won the 200 freestyle with a 1:50.54, more than a second better than second place, and the 200 breaststroke with a 2:17.66, a second faster than LSU’s Victoria Givens.
De Giovanni won the 1000 freestyle with a 10:14.71, more than five seconds ahead of the field. She came back later in the meet to win the 100 breaststroke, out-touching LSU’s Kannon Betzen 1:03.40 to 1:03.60. She also won the 500 freestyle, turning in a 4:54.35 before stepping up on the final relay.
“There were some good swims tonight, some good swims all the way around,” Alabama head coach Eric McIlquham said “The kids know what’s coming at them as we get into the conference schedule. As a group that is what we have to contend with every day. This is what they signed up for, to compete in the fastest conference in the nation. Our kids are going to fight. They are not going to back down. As a coaching staff that’s what we are asking of them, to stand up every day and give 100-percent and they’ve done a pretty good job of that, now it’s just time to kick it up a notch.”
Sophomore Aaron Fleshner continues to lead the Tide men, turning in a pair of wins in the diving events. He turned in a 348.75 total to win the one-meter board by nearly 40 points. He came back to win the three-meter board by a 50-point margin, totaling a 408.05.
“Aaron Fleshner just continues his winning ways on the boards,” McIlquham said. “He’s a tough kid, there’s no doubt about it.”
Sophomores Luke Boutwell and Riley Boulden went one-two in the 100 breaststroke, touching at 57.87 and 58.19 respectively. Boulden then proceeded to win the 200 breaststroke with a 2:06.11.
Alabama’s men started out the night with a classic relay battle with the Tide foursome of junior Chris Perry, Boutwell, sophomore Alin Mihalca and senior Mike Jones coming in just behind the Tiger’s “A” 200 medley relay 1:31.95 to 1:31.99.
“There were tight races all the way around and we’re just not getting our hand on the wall,” McIlquham said. “The difference between first and second is a 10-point swing. We were getting out touched and that made the difference.”
Alabama returns to action November 10 in Athens, Miss. where it faces Delta State and Centenary at 2 p.m.
Players Mentioned
