Alabama vs. Auburn

TUSCALOOSA, Alabama. November 21. THE No. 7 Auburn swimming and diving teams are both in the lead heading into the final session of its two-day dual meet at in-state rival Alabama. After 24 events in the "Iron Bowl of Swimming," the women's team leads the Crimson Tide, 149.50-70.50, while the men's team holds a narrow 114-106 advantage.

The women's team has led wire-to-wire so far while the men had to come from behind in the second session of the day. In the first two session's combined, the women's team has posted three NCAA provisional B cut times while the men posted another four.

Also competing were Auburn's divers at the Georgia Tech Invitational. Alabama's divers are competing at Georgia Tech as well and results from the diving preliminaries will be factored into the dual meet scores back in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

In the swimming events, the Crimson Tide and Tigers are swimming the full NCAA Championship program, broken up into three sessions over two days. The teams are swimming all the events in long course meters.

Of the 12 events in the books, Auburn's women's team picked up wins in 10 of them. The 200m free relay team of Arianna Vanerpool-Wallace, Melissa Marik, Ava Ohlgren and Emile Ewing got things going with a time of 1:45.91, leading a 1-2 punch in the event. The team of Jenny VonJouanne, Alana Dillette, Kelsey Winters and Margo McCawley followed in second.

Sophomore Micah Martindale and junior Maggie Bird followed up with a win in the 400m freestyle as the Tiger duo tied for the win with a time of 4:23.36. Ohlgren came in right behind them with her first individual win of the day, picking up a B cut time of 2:18.64 in the 200m individual medley. Ohlgren also picked up a win later in the day as she won the 100m butterfly with a time of 1:02.56.

Vanderpool-Wallace earned her first career B cut time in the next event as she took second place in the 50m freestyle, coming in right on the cut line with a time of 26.18.

The Tigers rounded out the first session of the day with a win in the 400m medley relay as the team of Rachel Goh, Micah Lawrence, Ohlgren and Vanderpool-Wallace clocked a time of 4:16.63. Goh's leadoff split time of 1:04.54 gave her a B cut time in the 100m back.

Auburn opened the second session of the day with tie for the win in the 200m medley relay. The team of Goh, Lawrence, Ohlgren and Vanderpool-Wallace touched in with a time of 1:58.54. Next up was an Auburn sweep in the 200m freestyle, led by Marik with the win, clocking a 2:05.14. Martindale finished a hundredth of a second behind her for second place while Vanderpool-Wallace came in at third.

Lawrence and Dillette followed up with back-to-back wins. Lawrence came in first as she posted a time of 1:12.86 to win the 100m breaststroke, followed by Dillette with her time of 1:05.59 for the win in the 100m backstroke.

The Tigers finished off the day with a 1-2 sweep in the 800m freestyle relay. The team of Martindale, Julianne McLane, Marik and Goh came in first with a winning time of 8:23.55, followed by the team of Bird, Vanderpool-Wallace, Ohlgren and McCawley in second.

In the men's events, the Tigers used their experience in the sprinting events to pick up six wins that turned into an eight-point lead by the end of the day.

The first win came in the 200m freestyle relay with the team of Kohlton Norys, Steve Scheren, Karl Krug and Gideon Louw clocking a B cut time of 1:33.21 for the win. Louw turned around in the 50m free to pick up a B cut time, clocking a 23.06 for the win. Krug finished behind him in second with a time of 23.32 – three hundredths of a second off the NCAA B cut line.

The Tigers trailed the Crimson Tide by one point after the first session, but turned in on in the second run of the day to take over the lead.

Auburn got the comeback started in the 200m medley relay as the team of Norys, Adam Klein, Matt Targett and Louw touched in with a winning time of 1:43.85. Targett came back for his first individual win, clocking a 54.98 in the 100m butterfly, a time that comes in eight hundredths of a second off the B cut.

Two other members of the winning relay team were not far behind in posting wins in their particular stroke. Klein was first as he posted a time of 1:05.30 to pick up the win in the 100m breastroke. Norys followed with a b cut time of 57.66 in the 100m backstroke for the win. The time was his second NCAA provisional cut of the day in the event as he posted a 57.66 backstroke leadoff split in the 200m Medley relay.

The final B cut time of the day came in the final event of the day as Auburn's 800m freestyle relay team of Norys, Targett, Tyler McGill and Will Dove touched in with a NCAA provisional time of 7:36.01 for second place.

In the diving events, it was Kelly Marx posting the top finish of the day as he placed second in the 1-meter final at the Georgia Tech Invitational, tallying a NCAA zone-qualifying score of 333.45. In the 1-meter preliminaries, that count toward the Alabama dual meet, Marx and Dan Mazzaferro went 1-2 with scores of 334.80 and 327.15, respectively. Both scores are NCAA zone qualifying scores.

In the women's 3-meter diving, freshman Anna Aguero was the lone Tiger to make the finals as she finished fourth with a NCAA zone-qualifying score of 283.85. In the preliminary, she finished third among Auburn and Alabama divers with a score of 252.75. Fellow freshman Laura Mulqueen gave Auburn a fifth-place finish in the dual competition with a score of 194.80.

"I am very pleased with the progress, much improved from our dual meet performance last week at Georgia," said Auburn diving coach Jeff Shaffer. "I think we are learning how to compete again and making corrections from the past week and fall."

Special thanks to Auburn for contributing this report.

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