AUBURN – To say Alabama’s fourth day at the Southeastern Conference Swimming and Diving Championships was a good one would be a vast understatement. Saying it was a great day would probably still not do the Tide’s performance justice.
Alabama earned gold medals in three events, added silver in two more and collected a trio of SEC records to go with five school standards.
Sophomore Rhyan White got the Tide’s winning ways started, breaking her own SEC and school records from prelims and going 50.02 in finals to run away with the women’s 100 backstroke title. Senior Zane Waddell came back in the men’s race and broke the SEC and school record on the way to taking his second 100 backstroke title in a row and second individual SEC championship in a row after the 50 freestyle on Wednesday.
Freshman Liam Bell posted a scorching time in the 100 breaststroke, taking second with a school record 51.39, just four-hundredths of a second out of first.
The women closed their day with a huge swim in the 400 medley relay. White, junior Kaila Wong, junior Flora Molnar and sophomore Morgan Scott destroyed the old school record by more three seconds and came within seven-hundredths of a second of winning the race with a time of 3:28.90.
One event later, the quartet of Waddell, Bell, junior Tyler Sesvold and sophomore Jonathan Berneburg shaved more than a second off the previous SEC record and exactly two second off the school record to win the Tide’s second relay title of the week with a 3:02.17 in the men’s 400 medley relay. Waddell also bettered his own SEC and school 100 backstroke record on the leadoff leg with a 44.10, which ranks him as one of the top-five 100 backstrokers in swimming history.
Alabama’s men are in the fifth place with 655.5 points, while the women are in seventh 526 points with one more day to go.
