Swimming and Diving Closes Out Regular Season with Tri-Meet
1/28/2011 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
Jan. 28, 2011
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The Alabama swimming and diving teams close out the 2010-11 regular season Saturday in Columbia, S.C., facing off against Southeastern Conference foes South Carolina and Georgia. The meet, which gets underway at 10:30 a.m. ET, will take place in the Blatt P.E. Center.
"It's hard to believe that we're already at the last weekend of the regular season and coming up on the championship season," UA head coach Eric McIlquham said. "It should be a good meet and a good final test as we start to pick our conference team."
Alabama's men, ranked 16th this week, comes into final weekend with an undefeated 7-0 mark overall which includes a 5-0 record against SEC competition. South Carolina's men are also undefeated at 9-0, 1-0 SEC, and are ranked 22nd. The Bulldogs are 4-4 overall and are ranked ninth nationally. The Tide women are 0-7 overall, 0-5 in the SEC, but are 29th in the national rankings. Georgia's women are 8-0 and ranked No. 2 in the nation while the Gamecock's are 6-5 and unranked.
In addition to its team win streak, several Tide men will be looking to keep season-long event streaks going. Senior distance ace Catalin Cosma is undefeated in the 500 and 1000/1650 freestyles this season while junior Joe Ziegler hasn't lost the 200 backstroke or freestyle this season. Freshman B.J. Hornikel is unbeaten in the 100 freestyle coming into this weekend.
On the women's side of the slate, freshman Kristel Vourna has won five of six races in her last two meets and freshman diver Paige McCleary has won either the 1 or 3-meter board in her last two outings. Senior Kate Shannon Gray is ranked in the league's top three in the 200 and 400 IM while junior Suzanne Schwee is ranked third in the 200 butterfly.
Once the Tide returns from Columbia, just 10 days will remain until the divers head to Gainesville, Fla., for the SEC Championships and just over two weeks until the swimmers make the same trip.
"We're doing our last bit of prep work right now before we start to rest up for the SEC Championships, head down to Gainesville and get after it," McIlquham said.
Players Mentioned
