Alabama
Men's NCAA Championships
Alabama Men’s Swimming and Diving Opens NCAA Championships Wednesday in Indianapolis
3/21/2017 8:29:00 PM | Swimming & Diving
INDIANAPOLIS – The Alabama men's swimming and diving team gets the 2017 NCAA Championships underway Wednesday evening with the day's only swimming event, the 800 freestyle relay.
"We're excited to get things started," UA head coach Dennis Pursley said. "We've been on a steady progression on the men's side the last couple of years and we'd like to see that continue."
Overall, the Crimson Tide's 10-swimmer championship contingent will compete all five relays and a number of individual events over the four-day competition that will be held in the IUPUI Natatorium in Indianapolis this week.
The All-American quartet of senior Alex Gray, juniors Christopher Reid and Matthew Adams and sophomore Robert Howard are slated to compete in the 800 freestyle relay Wednesday. Gray, Reid and Adams swam on the 800 relay at last year's NCAAs, earning Honorable Mention All-America honors after taking 16th place.
A total of six Alabama men will swim individual races at this year's championships, led by three-time Southeastern Conference 100 backstroke champion Connor Oslin, who finished second in the 100 backstroke at last year's NCAA championships, and two-time SEC 200 breaststroke champion Anton McKee. Both are making their fourth appearance at the national championships and both come into the week as three-year All-Americans.
"My goals for this meet are to go as fast as I can and to score as many points as I can for my team," Oslin said. "It's the fastest short-course (yards) meet in the world, pretty much. It's always fun to go there and see where you stack up against the best competition in the world."
In addition to Oslin and McKee, All-Americans Laurent Bams, Luke Kaliszak and Reid are all making return visits to the championships, while freshman Zane Waddell will be making his NCAA debut.
Gray, Adams, Howard and senior Pavel Romanov will see relay duty during the week.
After Wednesday's short schedule, the meet goes to full its prelims and finals schedule Thursday-Saturday. The prelims start at 10 a.m. ET each day and the finals begin at 6 p.m. ET.
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Players Mentioned
