Alabama
SEC Championships
Alabama Swimming and Diving Opens SEC Championships by Breaking Two School Records
2/14/2018 8:17:00 PM | Swimming & Diving
Freshman Leonie Kullmann bettered her own mark in the 200 freestyle as the leadoff leg of the 800 freestyle relay while the women’s 200 medley relay broke the school mark set last season
COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Alabama swimming and diving came away from day one of the Southeastern Conference Championships being held on the Texas A&M campus this week with a pair of school records.
The championships first day included a pair of relays for the men and women. The Crimson Tide men earned a podium finish in the 200 medley relay, taking third place with a season-best 1:23.58 from senior Luke Kaliszak, junior Laurent Bams, sophomore Zane Waddell and junior Robert Howard.
Alabama took fourth in the women's 200 medley relay when juniors Katie Kelsoe and Justine Macfarlane combined with freshman Flora Molnar and senior Bailey Scott to stop the clock with a new school record of 1:36.81. The Tide's new mark shaved a quarter of a second off the previous record set last season.
Both medley relays bettered the automatic NCAA standard and will advance to the national championships.
"We started out with really solid races in the 200 relays," UA head coach Dennis Pursley said. "The women set a school record and made the NCAA A cut, which they did not have coming into this meet. The men already had an A time but they lowered their season-best time by over a second so those were good swims to start things off with."
Freshman Leonie Kullmann led off the Tide's 800 freestyle relay with a new school 200 freestyle record of 1:45.31, bettering the standard she set in the fall by half a second. Kullmann, freshmen Lydia Jackson and Julia Kukla, along with senior Mia Nonnenberg combined to post a 7:12.73, taking ninth place.
The men's 800 freestyle relay of seniors Matthew Adams, Christopher Reid and Will Freeman and junior Christian Arseneau combined for a 6:27.30, and ninth place.
Thursday marks the SEC Championships first full day of competition, with prelims getting started at 10 a.m. CT and finals starting at 6 p.m. Day two events include men's and women's 500 freestyle, 200 individual medley and 50 freestyle as well as the men's 1-meter springboard diving event.
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