Auburn Sweeps Alabama in Home Opener

AUBURN, Ala., Nov. 16. AUBURN swimming and diving started off the home season on the right track here Friday night with the No. 4 AU women defeating No. 19 Alabama 173-90 and the No. 5 Tiger men taking No. 18 Alabama 174-85.

The Auburn women upped their record to 2-0 (1-0 SEC) in dual meets this season while the men claim their first dual meet of the season and stand at 1-0 (1-0 SEC).

Alabama's men and women dropped to 1-1, both overall and in the SEC.

Friday night the Tigers honored their seniors with eight being recognized including Abby Hochella, Christian Cantwell, Kevin Clements, Kirk Hampleman, Jon Karr, Brandon Roberts, Bryan Rother and Eric
van Goethem.

The Tigers started off the meet in fine fashion taking first and second places in the 200-yard medley relay in both the men's and women's events.

Continuing to control the meet, the Tiger women swept the 1000 freestyle with Magda Dyszkiewicz in first (9:50.93), Heather Kemp in second (10:12.54) and Megan Riddle taking third (10:29.22).

In the 200 free, Auburn captured the top three spots with Maggie Bowen in first (1:49.23), Cassidy Maxwell in second and Becky Short in third.

Taylor Spivey earned first in the 100 back for the Tigers with a season-best time of 55.60.

Sophomore Laura Swander placed first in the 100 breast
(1:02.88), freshman Margaret Hoelzer finished first in the 200 fly (2:01.00), Eileen Coparropa earned first in the 100 free (49.88) and Short took top honors in the 50 free (23.09).

Hoelzer took her second event of the night in the 200 back with a time of 2:00.26. The trio of Magda Dyszkiewicz (4:52.96), Margaret Hoelzer and Abby Hochella went one, two, three in the 500 freestyle.

The women's team kept the pressure on throughout the meet taking first place in every swimming event, except the 200 breast, including sweeping the 200 free, 1000 free, the 500 free and the 200 medley relay.

For Alabama, redshirt sophomore diver Lane Bassham battered the competition with a 14-point win off the one-meter board and a 17-point trouncing off the three-meter board. Super sophomore Anne Poleska raced away
from the field in the 200 breaststroke winning by nearly three seconds with a 2:15.23.

On the men's side, the Tigers claimed first in 11 out of the 14 swimming events which included Kevin Clements in the 1000 free (9:18.05), freshman B.J. Jones in the 200 free (1:39.71), Kirk Hampleman in the 100 back (49.33), Pat Calhoun in the 100 breast (55.54) and Eric van Goethem in the 50 free (20.88).

For Alabama, Stefan Ghreghel continues to show why he is considered to be one of the nation's top freshmen.
Ghreghel swam a blistering 1:45.25 in the 200 butterfly,bettering the field by over three and a half seconds and becoming the second fastest 200 flyer in Alabama history. He now trails only 1984 Olympic 200
fly champion Jon Sieben's school record. Later in the meet, Ghreghel came back in the 100 butterfly and won that event with a 48.61, nearly a second better than the runnerup. That effort placed him fifth all-time for the Tide. Both butterfly marks rank as the best in the nation so far this season by wide margins.

Alabama freshman diver Stewart Smith rounded out the Tide men's winning ways, with a first place finishing off the one-meter board, with a gutsy one-point win.

In the 100 breast, Auburn showed its dominance taking the first, second and fourth spots and claimed second, third and fourth in the 200 fly (Cantwell, Nick Kozyra and Jeremy Knowles).

Auburn divers Caesar Garcia and Matt Bricker dominated the boards taking first (319.20) and second (290.93) on the 3-meter respectively. The duo also took second and third on the 1-meter diving as Bricker placed second (204.30) and Garcia third (196.40).

Freshmen Matt Kidd and Ryan Wochomurka claimed first (44.82) and second (45.61) in the 100 freestyle. Wochomurka also placed second (20.97) to Senior Eric van Goethem in the 50 free.

In the men's 200 backstroke event, Bryce Hunt came from behind in the last fifty to claim victory for the Tigers (1:48.15). Auburn went on to sweep the field in the 200 breaststroke as Kevin Clements, Justin Caron and Pat Calhoun finished first, second and third.
James Galloway had a very big night for the Tigers as he won both the 500 freestyle (4:28.47) and the 400 individual medley (3:55.94).

"I was very pleased with the meet overall," head coach David Marsh said. "I was looking for the team to respond to the excitement of the weekend and I think they did.

"With senior recognition tonight, Christian (Cantwell), Kirk (Hampleman), Kevin (Clements), Brandon (Roberts) and Eric (van Goethem) really had an outstanding meet. Eric is in his best form ever for this time of the year and we saw a lot to build on.

"The women had some truly outstanding swims tonight. Eileen (Coparropa) is well ahead of where she was in 2001 and she was an SEC record holder. Margaret Hoelzer continues to improve and Taylor Spivey and Magda Dyszkiewicz are really regaining their 2001 form."

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