Auburn Beats Gators In Marsh’s Last Home Dual Meet

AUBURN, Alabama, January 19. THE Auburn men's and women's swimming and diving teams celebrated senior day in fine fashion, as both teams rolled to victories over Florida in David Marsh's last home dual meet as Auburn's Director of Competitive Aquatics. The third-ranked men posted a 163-137 victory over the No. 11 Gators, while Auburn's No. 3 women's squad earned a 167-125 victory over No. 9 Florida.

It was an emotional meet for Auburn, which held its first competition since the passing of Ralph Crocker, Auburn's Associate Director of Intercollegiate Swimming and Diving, who died Sunday after a lengthy illness. Marsh also deflected recognition of his last home dual meet to instead honor his senior class that has won a combined five national championships and five SEC championships over the past three seasons.

"This meet was dedicated to Ralph," said Marsh. "I'm an Auburn guy and I still don't feel like I'm going to be leaving Auburn, because I'm not completely. I think maybe at the end of the NCAAs I'll have a hard time, but right now I'm not processing it."

The women's team in particular posted several top marks, earning one `A' cut mark and 17 `B' cut performances. The men's squad also had one `A' cut time and recorded seven provisional marks. In addition, Auburn's divers took the top two spots in all four diving events and posted eight zone qualifying scores.

"On the men's side, the story was diving, John Scott and Dave Maras," said Marsh. "The first half of the meet went really well, then we pretty much hit the exhaustion button, and were hanging on by our fingernails. Florida has an extremely good lineup and we just saw a glimpse of what the challenge is going to be like at SECs in a couple of weeks."

"Overall, we competed very well," said Auburn women's co-head coach Dorsey Tierney-Walker. "I think both the men and women are a little emotionally drained after the week we've had, but we were pretty intense coming in here and honoring Ralph. Tara Denby and Emily Kukors had very nice meets, and Tawnie Bethune and Margo McCawley had probably their best meet of the year so far. There's still a lot of room for improvement, but I like what I saw."

Auburn swept the top three spots in both the men's and women's 1-meter diving. On the women's side, Corey Lynn Gerlach posted a season-best score of 303.97, which ranks fourth in the SEC this year to win the event. Lynnsey Segraves improved her zone qualifying score with a second-place mark of 282.22, and Emily Griesemer was third (226.64). For the men, Steven Segerlin remained unbeaten this season in the 1-meter, scoring 336.45 points. Dan Mazzaferro (289.35) and Kelly Marx (282.07) were second and third, respectively.

Segerlin and Gerlach also won the 3-meter events. Segerlin scored 376.50, which was just shy of his season-best mark of 380.62 set last week vs. Texas, and Mazzaferro was second with a season-best 360.37. Gerlach won the women's event with a score of 321.60, while Segraves scored 302.77 points to finish second.

"It was a really great meet for us," said head diving coach Jeff Shaffer. "Corey winning the 1-meter and breaking 300 is a personal best for her and Lynnsey had a personal best as well. On the 3-meter were probably not as sharp but were very consistent. We have a few things that we still have to work on.

"On the men's side, I was pleased with our place finish, although we still obviously have some things to work on. Steve did a nice job in winning both events, and I was especially pleased with him coming back on 3-meter after a better than average 1-meter. We'll go back and start training tomorrow morning and try to improve on the things we did and correct the things that we didn't."

Cesar Cielo made his season debut a successful one, winning the 100 free with an `A' cut time of 43.19 seconds, which is the best mark in this year in the SEC, and the 200 free with a time of 1:38.14. Jakob Andkjaer (44.15) and Bryan Lundquist (44.74) completed a sweep of the top three spots in the 100 free.

Emily Kukors, the reigning SEC Female Swimmer of the Week, improved her `A' qualifying time in the 200 free with a winning time of 1:46.76, improving her SEC-best mark from last week by .03 seconds. Ava Ohlgren finished fourth but improved her `B' cut time to 1:48.30.

Kukors also had the fastest time while swimming an exhibition 200 IM with a mark of 2:02.05, while Ohlgren was second fastest in 2:02.65.

David Maras met the `B' cut qualifying standard while winning the 100 breast in 54.66 seconds, smashing his previous season best by more than two seconds. John Scott won the 200 fly, improving on his season-best `B' cut time with a winning mark of 1:47.08.

Tawnie Bethune and Kristin Hastrup finished 1-2 in the 200 fly, with Bethune (1:59.41) winning the event and improving on her `B' cut time by nearly one second. Bethune also won the 100 fly while meeting the provisional qualifying mark with a time of 54.95.

Kara Denby won the 50 free (:23.23) and the 100 free, improving her `B' cut time in the 100 with a mark of 50.11 seconds. Rachel Goh won the 100 back in 54.55 seconds, while Margo McCawley finished second in :55.25, with both swimmers posting `B' cut times. McCawley also met the provisional time in the 200 back, finishing fourth in 2:01.17.

Alexei Puninski won the men's 50 free with an Auburn season-best time of 20.16 seconds, meeting the provisional qualifying time, while Matt Targett returned to the lineup to finish second in :20.31.

Hayley Peirsol and Adrienne Binder finished 1-2 in the 1000, with Peirsol finishing in 9:38.47 and Binder posting a mark of 9:43.39. Peirsol was second in the 500 free in 4:46.71.

Three women met or improved on their `B' cut times in the 100 breast, as Abby MacGregor (1:03.21) finished second, Anne Amardeilh (1:03.22) was third and Julie Stupp (1:03.25) was fourth.

Amardeilh won the 200 breast with a `B' cut time of 2:17.01, while MacGregor (2:17.77) and Stupp (2:18.15) completed the sweep of the top three spots.

In the women's 400 medley relay, Auburn improved its season best `B' cut time with a mark of 3:40.98 by the group of Goh, Stupp, Ohlgren and Kukors.

Lundquist, Sean Osborne, Puninski and Andkjaer won the men's 400 medley relay, posting a season-best `B' cut time of 3:14.74. Auburn wrapped up the meet by winning the men's 400 free relay, as the team of Andkjaer, Lundquist, Targett and Cielo posted a winning and `B' cut time of 2:57.47.

Auburn will return to action when the Tigers visit Florida State for a men's and women's dual meet next Saturday, Jan. 27.

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