Alabama Enjoys Highly Successful Run at 2020 SEC Swimming and Diving Championships
2/27/2020 11:11:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
The Crimson Tide earned medals in 15 different events, including a league-best nine gold, and set six SEC Championships records and 23 school records
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Alabama men and women had a big week at the recent 2020 Southeastern Conference Championships, winning a meet-best nine individual and relay titles, setting six SEC Championship records, earning medals in 15 different events and setting 23 school records.
Sophomore Rhyan White led the way on the women's side of the meet, winning the 100 and 200 backstrokes, setting SEC records in both. It marked the first time that an Alabama woman has swept the backstroke events at the conference championships since Kim Nicholson in 1982. White also earned silver in the 100 butterfly. Her times in the 200 backstroke rank among the 10 fastest in swimming history.
Sophomore Kensey McMahon took top honors in the 1,650 freestyle, making her the first UA woman to win an SEC championship in the mile. Freshman Tanesha Lucoe closed out her first SEC Championships in style, winning Alabama's first women's platform diving title since Elizabeth Hughes in 2009.
Senior Zane Waddell paced the men, winning the 100 backstroke with an SEC record swim, and taking top honors the 50 freestyle. He also swam legs on the Tide's winning 200 and 400 freestyle relays and the 400 medley relay which set another SEC record. His SEC record time of 44.10 ranks him as the fifth-fastest 100 backstroker in history. He also took home the Commissioner's Trophy, which goes to the individual high point scorer at the championships and was voted the SEC Swimming and Diving Scholar-Athlete of the Year by the league's coaches. Waddell started the meet with a 20.33 leadoff backstroke leg in the 200 medley relay, giving him two of the three fastest splits in swimming history.
Waddell joined juniors Tyler Sesvold, Sam DiSette and sophomore Jonathan Berneburg to win the 200 freestyle relay, while Waddell, Sesvold, Berneburg and sophomore Colton Stogner won the 400 freestyle relay. It was Waddell, Sesvold, Berneburg and freshman Liam Bell who brought home the 400 medley relay title in an SEC record time.
Alabama won its third SEC 200 freestyle relay title in a row and fourth in the past six years as well as its second-consecutive 400 freestyle relay win and first 400 medley relay title since 2015. In all, the UA men have won eight SEC relay titles over the past six years. Prior to 2015, the Tide men last won a relay in 1994.
More from Alabama at the SEC Championships
- Waddell gave Alabama its second Commissioner's Trophy in a row, following Robert Howard in 2019, and its sixth-consecutive SEC Male Swimming and Diving Scholar-Athlete of the Year trophy, after Howard in 2019, Luke Kaliszak in 2018 and Connor Oslin in 2016 and 2017.
- The Tide women's four SEC titles in 2020 was the most since winning eight in 1985, when Alabama also won the SEC team title.
- Between 2019 and 2020, Alabama's men have totaled 11 SEC titles, the most over a two-year span for the Tide since winning 14 in 1990 and 1991.
- In addition to winning nine SEC titles, Alabama swimmers came away with six additional podium finishes.
- Bell (100 breaststroke), White (100 butterfly) and Waddell (100 freestyle) all took home silver medals, with Waddell finishing .01 out of first place.
- McMahon was third in the 500 freestyle.
- When White, junior Kaila Wong, junior Flora Molnar and Kalia Antoniou took the silver medal in the 400 medley relay, it marked Alabama's first top-two relay finish at SECs since 1996, and its best finish in the 400 medley relay since also finishing second in 1991.
- Alabama also made the podium when Antoniou, Molnar, White and sophomore Morgan Scott used a school record to take the bronze in the 400 freestyle relay to close the championships.
- This year's SEC championships marked the first time since 2001 that Alabama's women have posted two podium finishes in the relays at the same championships.
Record Smashing, 2020 Edition
- Alabama broke 23 school records over the five days of the 2020 SEC Championships, with the UA women bettering 16 and the men seven.
- White bettered her own school marks in the 100 and 200 backstrokes as well as the 100 butterfly, breaking the 100 backstroke and butterfly records twice each.
- McMahon broke the school 500, 1,000 and 1,650 freestyle records, with the 1,000 mark coming on the way out in the 1,650.
- Lucoe bettered the platform diving mark, while Scott broke the 200 freestyle record, sophomore Cat Wright bettered the 200 individual medley standard and senior Alexis Preski broke the 400 individual medley record.
- The Tide women also broke four out of the five relay records, including the 200, 400 and 800 freestyle relays and the 400 medley relay. The fifth, the 200 medley relay, had already fallen in November at the Georgia Tech Invitational.
- Waddell broke the 100 backstroke twice during the week, while sophomore Nicholas Perera did the same with the 400 individual medley.
- Bell broke the school standard in the 100 breaststroke and the 200 individual medley.
- The Tide men also broke the school 400 medley relay record.
- After this year's SEC Championships, the longest standing men's record is Stefan Gherghel's 200 butterfly, which came in 2003, while the oldest women's records still on the books are Kaylin Burchell's 100 and 200 breaststroke marks, which came in 2015.
- The Tide claimed 58 spots on Alabama's all-time top 10 lists, including 31 for the men and 27 for the women, during the 2020 SEC Championships.
Scoring the Tide
- When it came to individual scoring by class at the 2020 SEC Championships, the Crimson Tide men were led by its sophomores, which tallied 238 points, ranking second among SEC sophomores behind Florida.
- The men's freshman tallied 198 individual points, the most of any rookie group in the SEC this season.
- The Tide men got the most points out of the 50 freestyle with 85, 30-plus points better than any other school in that event.
- Waddell led the SEC men with 92 individual points.
- On the women's side of the meet, the Tide sophomores tallied 315.5 points, the most of any second-year group in the SEC by nearly 75 points.
- The UA women scored the most individual points in the backstroke events, tallying 55 in the 100 and 54 in the 200.
- White led the Alabama women with 92 individual points which was second in the SEC, just behind Tennessee senior Erika Brown's 96.
More Numbers
- 6 – SEC Championships Records (3 women's, 3 men's)
- 9 – SEC Championships (5 men's, 4 women's)
- 15 – SEC Championships Medals (8 women's, 7 men's; 9 gold, 4 silver, 2 bronze)
- 23 – Alabama School Records (16 women's, 12 individual/4 relay; 7 men's, 6 individual/1 relay)
- 28 – Individual Championship/A Finals (16 men's, 12 women's)
- 113 – Individual Career Best Times (63 men's, 50 women's)
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Players Mentioned
