Another crown for Auburn men, women

TUSCALOOSA | Tigers aren't an animal you would associate at being adept in water, but the Auburn Tigers' continued dominance of the SEC Swimming and Diving Championships may cause some to rethink that notion.

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Auburn swept the team championships Saturday night with the men steamrolling its way to another team championship, its 14th out of the last 15th seasons, lapping Florida 806-712. The women outdistanced Florida 761.50-706.

It was a historic night with five SEC records falling, with Auburn setting three new marks.

Auburn coach Richard Quick, who is in his second stint as the Auburn coach, won his first ever SEC championship. Quick is tied with former Auburn coach David Marsh for the most NCAA team championships at 12. He has been a coach on every Olympic team since 1984 and has been the head coach three times.

'It feels great to continue, at the SEC level, the standard of excellence that Auburn has set over the last decade,' Quick said. 'It feels good to still be performing at a high level.'

Quick is in his first season back with the Tigers after coaching stops at Texas and Stanford. His teams at Texas won five NCAA titles and at Stanford won seven.

'It's been an exciting year,' Quick said about his first year back at Auburn. 'Both teams [men and women] have grown through the year. Early in the season the men lost a dual meet to Tennessee pretty badly, it was ugly. But at that time we had a decision to make as a team and they made the right decision to work and improve. And the women took it on the chin at Florida. But you can see the kind of competitors they are.'

Auburn's Cesar Cielo, a junior, won the men's 100-yard freestyle in an SEC record time of 41.78. Teammate Alexi Puninski finished second in 42.71.

Cielo's win set a new Auburn record for career SEC championships with 16. Fred Bousquet (2002-05) held the old mark at 15. It was Cielo's second SEC record of the week. He set the 200-yard Individual Medley record on Thursday.

'Actually I wasn't expecting to win at all tonight,' Cielo said. 'I was really tired from swimming the 200, it got all my energy.

'Winning my third SEC championship in a row is great. Every SEC championship has a different feel, and this year's is more exciting than last years. I'm really proud of everyone because we lost a lot of guys last year.'

Auburn also set new SEC standards in the men's and women's 400-yard freestyle relay. The women swam a 3:13.09 ahead of Tennessee's 3:16.22. The men turned in a time of 2:50.49 getting a SEC record split time of 41.25 from Cielo.

Another bit of history was made when the University of Florida brother-sister combination of Clark and Caroline Burckle won the same event at the same meet. It was the first time in history that had occurred.

Caroline Burckle won the women's 200-yard breaststroke in 2:12.49. Alabama's Agustina de Giovanni took fourth place with a time of 2:13.74.

Clark Burckle won the men's 200-yard breaststroke in 1:56.00.

Georgia's Sebastien Rouault set the first SEC record of the night with 14:35.47 in the men's mile.

Florida's Gemma Spofforth swam a 1:50.56 in the women's 200-yard backstroke to set the new SEC standard.