Alabama
Men's NCAA Championships
Alabama Swimming and Diving Wins NCAA 200 Medley Relay
3/25/2016 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
ATLANTA, Ga. - The University of Alabama men's swimming and diving 200 medley relay crushed the school record on the way to winning its first NCAA relay title in program history with a blistering 1:22.28, just a hundredth of a second off the NCAA record, here in the McAuley Aquatic Center on the Georgia Tech campus Friday night.
Juniors Connor Oslin and Pavel Romanov combined with sophomore Luke Kaliszak and junior Kristian Gkolomeev to blast past California and Texas for the win. Gkolomeev posted the fastest relay split in school history over the last 50, going 18.00, reeled to secure the win.
"Relays are the consummate team events, so those are extra special," UA head coach Dennis Pursley said. "It was a big step forward for us and a lot of fun for the whole team. It was a great night."
Alabama was fourth at the halfway point of the race, and third, more than three-quarters of a second behind California and Texas when Gkolomeev dove in the water. The junior, who took third in the individual 50 freestyle on Thursday, blazed past third-place Texas and then went past the Bears over the last 10 yards of the race to win by two-tenths of a second.
"When you have Kristian Gkolomeev anchoring, you can come back from just about anything," Oslin said.
Earlier in the night, Oslin took silver in the 100 backstroke with a gutsy 45.32 swim, finishing second to Cal's Ryan Murphy who used an American, NCAA and U.S. Open record to take first place. Oslin, who was fifth in the 100 backstroke as a sophomore, edged Louisville's Grigory Tarasevich by a hundredth of a second for the silver.
Racing less than 30 miles from his hometown of Kennesaw, Ga., Oslin's swim was the best NCAA 100 backstroke finish by a Crimson Tide swimmer since Carolos Berrocal won the NCAA title in 1979.
Kaliszak used a huge, school record-setting swim in the morning to earn a place in the championship final of the 100 butterfly where he finished fifth with a 45.49. His school-record 45.18 from prelims crushed the previous Alabama mark by more than a second.
After slipping into the finals of the 100 backstroke in 16th place with a 46.10 in prelims, Kaliszak came back at night and cranked a 45.88, taking fifth in the B final and 13th overall. Scoring only in relays as a freshman, the Huntsville, Ala., native has now scored individual points twice in one day as a sophomore.
The Tide is in seventh place with 143 points after the meet's third day. Alabama closes out the final day of the championships on Saturday with the 200 backstroke, 100 freestyle, 200 breaststroke, platform diving and the 400 freestyle relay.
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Players Mentioned
