Alabama Swimming and Diving Opens SEC Championships with a Relay Gold
COLLEGE-STATION, Texas – Alabama Swimming and Diving opened the 2023 Southeastern Conference Championships strong Tuesday, medaling in a pair of relays and breaking two school records.
The Crimson Tide opened the meet by winning the women’s 200 medley relay for the third year in a row.
On the men’s side, Alabama earned a third-place finish in the 800 freestyle relay, marking its first podium finish in the event since 1994.
“It was great to start the meet off the way we did with all of our divers scoring and moving up from their initial seeds," Crimson Tide coach Margo Greer said in a statement. "On the swimming side of things, the women winning the first relay really set the tone for us. The men followed up very nicely with their performance in the 800 free relay with a record-breaking swim.
"We decided to do a time trial for the men’s 200 medley relay, and it felt really good to get that automatic, qualifying time for NCAAs. We’re pleased with how the night went and we’re looking to continue building off this throughout the week.”
Crimson Tide Highlights
- Rhyan White, Avery Wiseman, Emily Jones and Kalia Antoniou combined to take gold in the women’s 200 medley relay (1:34.20), taking the title by more than a half second
- Alabama's 1:34.20 is the second-fastest winning time in championship history (behind last year’s winning time) and marked the third-straight 200 medley relay title for the UA women
- The Crimson Tide also set a new Texas A&M Natatorium pool record en route to the win
- Jones posted the fastest butterfly split of the race with a 22.80, while Antoniou had the fastest freestyle leg at 21.05
- Charlie Hawke, Kaique Alves, Cam Auerbach and Kacper Piotrowski earned a bronze medal in the men’s 800 freestyle relay with a school record time of 6:12.46, less than a tenth of a second out of second place
- It marked Alabama’s first podium finish in the 800 relay since 1994
- The relay contingent bettered the previous school record by more than two seconds
- Hawke’s lead-off leg of 1:31.51 broke his own mark, which he set in November at the Art Adamson Invitational
- Matt Menke, Derek Maas, Mateo Miceli and Piotrowski (1:24.77) combined to take seventh in the men’s 200 medley relay
- Antoniou, Mela Delmenico, Mackenzie Brandt and Kensey McMahon (7:05.36) took seventh in the women’s 800 freestyle relay
- Peter Edin opened the meet for the Tide in the men’s 1-meter, moving up two spots from his initial seeding, finishing 18th, recording Alabama’s first points of the meet
- Ryleigh Rodgers and Alexandra Warshaw made their SEC Championships debut in the women’s 3-meter springboard, taking 10th and 21st place, respectively
- Rodgers and Warshaw combined to move up 41 places from their initial seeding, opening the scoring for the women’s squad
Wednesday is the first fill day of the meet. The prelims of the men’s and women’s 500 freestyle, 200 individual medley and the 50 freestyle and the women’s 1-meter springboard begin at 9:30 a.m. CT. Finals get underway at 5:30 p.m. with the men’s and women’s 200 freestyle relays.
See Also:
Kensey McMahon's Alabama Swimming Career Defined by Patience
