Alabama
University of Missouri
Alabama Men’s Swimming and Diving Wins at Missouri in First Road Meet of 2016-17
10/14/2016 4:40:00 PM | Swimming & Diving
COLUMBIA, Mo. – The Alabama men's and women's swimming and diving teams split at Missouri in the Crimson Tide's first road meet of the young season Friday afternoon. The Alabama men won 183-114 while the UA women fell 167-132.
"I was really pleased with how we performed today," UA head coach Dennis Pursley said. "This was probably the most complete team meet we've had since I've been at Alabama. I was very pleased with the really aggressive racing across the board. We won most of the close races and the ones we didn't win, we were fighting to the wall and charging home."
The Alabama men move to 2-0 on the season and 1-0 in Southeastern Conference competition while the Tide women go to 3-1 overall, 1-1 in the SEC. The meet was an early season meeting of NCAA heavyweights. Alabama's men were sixth at the national championships last season while Missouri was eighth, while Mizzou was 11th and the Tide was 28th at the 2016 NCAA Women's Championships.
"Our spirit before, during and after the meet was finally where I've wanted it to be for the last four years," Pursley said. "It's been getting better along the way and today it was there throughout.
"It was just a really satisfying meet."
Senior Anton McKee and junior Luke Kaliszak led the way for the Alabama men. McKee was the only member of the men's team to pick up two individual wins, taking first in both the 200 breaststroke (1:59.26) and the 400 individual medley (1:59.26). Kaliszak won the 100 backstroke (47.42) and swam legs on the winning 200 medley relay (1:26.92) and 200 freestyle relay (1:21.25).
Senior Connor Oslin and sophomore Robert Howard also swam legs on the winning 200 medley and freestyle relays while senior Pavel Romanov filled out the medley relay and senior Alex Gray anchored the free relay.
"It was just solid up and down the board," Pursley said. "The veterans performed well and we had some great performances from the rookies as well."
Freshman Daniel Kober picked up his first Crimson Tide win, touching the wall first in the 1,000 freestyle with a time of 9:21.80. Senior Alex Gray picked up top honors in the 200 freestyle (1:38.02) while junior Will Freeman posted a 4:34.69 to win the 500 freestyle. Junior Taylor Charles won the 200 butterfly (1:49.71) and Christopher Reid won the 200 backstroke (1:45.44).
Junior Mia Nonnenberg continued her stellar junior season, winning three individual events on the day, pushing her season total to eight wins in three meets. Nonnenberg picked up the women's first win of the day, taking top honors in the 1,000 freestyle (10:08.29), and went on to earn victories in the 500 free (4:55.45) and the 400 individual medley (4:14.78).
Junior Bailey Scott notched her third win of the season in the 50 freestyle after posting a 23.23 while junior Hannah Musser earned her fifth butterfly win of the season after taking first in the 100 butterfly in Columbia.
Junior Temarie Tomley, sophomore Morgan Fleming, Musser and Bailey combined to close the women's meet by winning the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 1:32.07.
"Our women responded to the challenge today and swam tough," Pursley said. "Even in the last event, when they knew they couldn't win the meet, they still stepped up and won the relay and finished up on a positive note."
Alabama remains on the road for its next meet, traveling to Auburn on Friday, Nov. 4 to take on in-state rival Auburn at 3 p.m.
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