Alabama
Men's NCAA Championships
A Pair of Top-Eight Swims Propels Alabama to 15th at the 2021 Men’s NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships
3/27/2021 9:25:00 PM | Swimming & Diving
Crimson Tide rookie Matt King took fifth in the 100 freestyle and led its 400 freestyle relay to a seventh place finish on the championships final day, jumping Alabama to 15th in the final team standings
GREENSBORO, N.C. – Alabama freshman Matt King finished fifth in the 100 freestyle and led off the seventh-place 400 freestyle relay to help propel the Crimson Tide to a 15th-place team finish at the 2021 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships at the Greensboro Aquatic Center in Greensboro, N.C., Saturday night.
Alabama used its pair of top-eight finishes on the meet's final day to score 91 points overall and jump into 15th place, marking its seventh consecutive top-15 finish. That is the second-longest streak in school history after finishing in the top 15 a total of 12 times between 1975-86 at the height of the Don Gambril era.
King jumped from eighth place in prelims of the 100 freestyle to fifth in finals, going 41.76. He then came back in the 400 freestyle relay, the last event of the meet, combining with Jonathan Berneburg, Sam DiSette and Colton Stogner to take seventh place with a time of 2:48.86.
Interim Head Coach Ozzie Quevedo Said
"Matt certainly closed his first NCAA Championships strong, with a career-best swim to lead off that relay, while also scoring in the A final of the 100 free. He and Jonny, Sam and Colton really came through in that last relay, getting us into top eight and scoring the points that jumped us into the top 15 as a team for the seventh time in a row. We're very proud of the way that everyone fought to the end, doing it all for the team. This was a crazy year for everyone, but the guys worked hard, grinding to keep us among the NCAA's top teams and that's just what they did."
Alabama's NCAA Championships Day Four Highlights
- Matt King led off the Crimson Tide 400 freestyle relay with a career-best 41.63 in the 100 freestyle
- His new career-best time puts King 11-hundredths of a second off the school 100 freestyle record of 41.52 set by three-time NCAA Champion Kristian Gkolomeev in 2016
- In addition to taking seventh in the 400 freestyle relay, King, Jonathan Berneburg, Sam DiSette and Colton Stogner also posted the Tide's top finish of the championships, taking bronze in the 200 freestyle relay earlier in the week
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Players Mentioned
