Alabama Swimming and Diving Closes 2017 SEC Championships with Golden Night
2/18/2017 9:13:00 PM | Swimming & Diving
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Alabama swimming and diving closed the 2017 Southeastern Conference Championships being held in the Allan Jones Aquatic Center on the University of Tennessee campus with a big night, including a pair of individual SEC titles and four school records.
"It was a great last day for us," UA head coach Dennis Pursley said. "We'd hoped to have this kind of day all week, but we got off to a little bit of a slow start at the first, but we talked all week about finishing strong and we certainly did that."
For the second night in a row, the Alabama men were dominant in the backstroke, taking first and second in the 200 24 hours after doing the same in the 100. Junior Christopher Reid used a school-record 1:39.64 to hold off teammate Connor Oslin for the SEC title. Oslin, who won the 100 backstroke title on Friday, was second in the 200 with a 1:40.35.
In the next event, senior Anton McKee bookended his career with his second SEC 200 breaststroke title, touching the wall with a 1:52.22. McKee won his first SEC title in 2014 as a freshman. Fellow senior Pavel Romanov was 12th in the 200 breaststroke after swimming a 1:56.94 while senior Szymmy Day took 21st with a 1:59.53.
"It was real nice to see Anton come back from winning his freshman year to now winning as senior," Pursley said.
In the team standings, Alabama's men finished fourth with 897 points while the women were 10th with 464 points.
The Crimson Tide closed out the night with school records in the men's and women's 400 freestyle relays. The men's squad of freshman Zane Waddell, sophomore Robert Howard, Reid and sophomore Laurent Bams took second with a time of 2:49.68. In the women's race, junior Temarie Tomley, junior Lindsay Morrow, junior Hannah Musser and junior Bailey Scott combined to post a 3:17.98 and take eighth place.
"Everybody kind of got in on the action tonight and it was real exciting finish for us," Pursley said.
Bams led the scoring in the men's 100 freestyle, taking fourth with a 42.75, while Howard was seventh after touching the wall at 42.96. Waddell won the B final of the 100, taking ninth overall, with a career-best 42.30, which ranks him second all-time at Alabama. Senior Alex Gray turned in a 43.58 to take second in the C final and 18th overall.
Junior Mia Nonnenberg was sixth in the 1,650 freestyle after turning in a time of 16:13.60 while senior Brent Sagert finished eighth in the men's platform event after totaling 374.60 points.
Scott, third in the 50 freestyle earlier in the meet, won the B final of the 100 freestyle with a school-record 48.48, taking ninth overall. Tomley also scored in the 100 freestyle, posting a 49.40 to finish 13th.
Senior Bridget Blood, third in the 100 breaststroke earlier in the week, was 14th in the 200 breaststroke with a 2:11.72 while sophomore Marian Yurchishin scored with a 23rd-place finish after finishing with a 2:14.56.
In the men's mile, freshman Daniel Kober finished 16th with a time of 15:07.38, making him the ninth-fastest miler in Alabama history. Senior Jack Hadjiconstantinou also scored in the 1,650 freestyle, taking 19th with a time of 15:14.52.
Sophomore Katie Coughlin (1:57.74) and freshman Kacey Oberlander (1:58.21) both scored in the 200 backstroke, taking 22nd and 23rd, respectively.
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