Alabama Swimming & Diving Takes Down Georgia Tech in SEC/ACC Battle

Kensey McMahon. Photo Courtesy: Jeff Hanson / Alabama Athletics

Alabama swimming and diving closed out its regular season with a sweep of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Friday afternoon in Atlanta, Ga., at the McCauley Aquatic Center.

Results

Alabama Swimming & Diving Press Release

The Crimson Tide women swept every swimming event, with Gracie Felner, Kensey McMahon and Rhyan White leading the way with two wins each. Felner won the 100 and 200 butterfly, McMahon dominated the 500 and 1,000 freestyles, while White swept the 100 and 200 backstrokes.

The Tide men took first through fourth in the 50 freestyle, with Sam DiSette leading the sweep. Matt King was just behind DiSette in second, while Jonathan Berneburg and Colton Stogner took third and fourth, respectively.

Interim Head Coach Ozzie Quevedo Said

“What a way to finish out the regular season. The women led from wire-to-wire, while the men fought for every point to get the win. We had some really strong events and some where we definitely have some finetuning to do before we get the postseason underway. I will say this, during the uncertainty of last spring and this summer, to actually get to have a regular season and be able to finish it off this way is a real blessing and it isn’t something we take for granted. I take my hat off to our entire team, men and women, swimmers and divers, for continuing to trust the process as they find ways to get better every opportunity they come across. Now we turn our focus to the next leg of our season, the SEC Championships.”

Highlights:

The Tide swept the relay events, opening and closing the meet with wins
The UA women opened with a 1-2 finish in the 200 medley relay, with Morgan Scott, Kaila Wong, Flora Molnar and Kalia Antoniou posting a 1:40.01 for the win
The men’s team quickly followed suit in 200 medley relay, with Matt Menke, Derek Maas, Colton Stogner and Matt King stopping the clock at 1:28.06 to start the afternoon
The women closed out their night with another 1-2 relay performance with Scott, Cora Dupre, Antoniou and Molnar winning the 400 freestyle relay with a time of 3:20.29, just ahead of the Tide’s B relay
King, Berneburg, Stogner and Kacper Piotrowski closed out the day and the Yellow Jackets with a win in the 400 freestyle relay, going 2:57.58

Individual Wins

Six additional women joined Felner, White and McMahon in taking home individual wins for the Tide
Scott picked up a win in the 50 freestyle with a 23.16, leading a 1-4 Tide sweep with Dupre, Flora Molnar and Jada Surrell taking home second, third and fourth, respectively
The Tide also swept the top-four spots in the 100 freestyle, with Antoniou winning in a time of 49.58 and Scott taking second, followed by Dupre and Surrell in third and fourth
Felner led a one-two-three Bama sweep of the 100 butterfly with 54.00, followed by Molnar and Ashley Voelkerding, respectively
Dupre picked up a win of her own in the 200 freestyle (1:48.22), with Cat Wright winning the 100 breastroke (1:03.23) and Caitlin Reynera winning the 200 breastroke (2:17.50)
Diana Petkova closed out the individual races with a win in the 100 IM (57.07)
Matt Menke and Jake Marcum joined DiSette in picking up individual wins for the Tide
Menke dominated the 100 backstroke, touching the wall over a second before the rest of the field with a 48.35
Marcum picked up a win in the 200 backstroke with a 1:48.50, followed closely by Eric Stelmar in second

Georgia Tech Release

Georgia Tech swimming & diving hosted its second dual meet of the spring season, coming up short against SEC opponent No. 16/11 Alabama on Friday afternoon at McAuley Aquatic Center. The men fell 153-145, while the women lost 191-106.

“Overall I am proud of energy we brought to meet,” said Courtney Shealy Hart. “It was a lot of fun, especially leading into the relays. We had a lot of really good performances on the men’s side despite losing close. Fortunately, our women’s team gets to compete again tomorrow against Vanderbilt. We are looking forward to the opportunity to get back in the water this weekend.”

Tech’s men captured gold in 11 different events, backed by Caio Pumputis, Christian Ferraro, Batur Unlu and Caleb Blischke each finishing in first-place in one or more of their respective swimming events. On the diving side of things, Ruben Lechuga swept the field as he was the top finisher in both the 1m & 3m dive.

Women’s diver Cami Hidalgo had another big weekend taking first in the 1m dive (298.65-points) & 3m dive (323.70). Emily Graham, Kyrsten Davis, Catriona MacGregor and Brooke Switzer lead the women to a first-place finish in the 400 free relay, combining for a mark of 3:29.57.

Men’s Highlights

Blischke was the first Yellow Jacket to take first at the meet, grabbing an early victory in the 1000 free, touching the wall at 9:31.20

Pumputis and Unlu individually each had gold medal efforts in three separate events throughout the dual meet. Pumputis took first in the 100 breast (53.44), 200 breast (1:58.30) and 100 IM (47.90), earning NCAA ‘B’ cuts in both the 100 & 200 breast. Unlu had a dominant showing in the freestyle events, winning the 200 free (1:36.93), 100 free (44.35) and 500 free (4:33.75).

Ferraro earned an NCAA ‘B’ cut in the 200 fly with a mark of 1:46.06, while also taking first in the 100 fly at 47.93.

Tech also saw podium performances by Blischke (4:37.37) and Daniel Jacobs (4:37.64) in the 500 free, sweeping the event for the Jackets coming in at second and third-place, respectively.

Women’s Highlights

Kelsey Dekshenieks joined Hidalgo on the podium in the 3m dive competition, placing third at 273.00. Anna Bradescu also found herself beside Hidalgo on the podium in the 3m dive with a score of 293.03.

Allie Paschal turned in two backstroke podium performances, coming in second in the 100 back (55.87) & third in the 200 back (2:01.81). Claudia Butterfield also earned a second-place spot on the leaderboard in the 200 breast (2:17.83). Racking in another second-place finish for Tech with a time of 10:16.92 was Morgan Johnson in the 1000 free.

Tech’s final second-place finisher, McKenzie Campbell, took silver in the 500 free at 4:59.53. Campbell also captured bronze in the 100m (57.68).

Rounding out the Jackets third-place finishes was Switzer (200 free, 1:51.34 & 500 free, 4:59.73), MacGregor (100 back, 1:03.91), Arianna Sakellaris (1000 free, 10:17.04) and Jami Williams (100 back, 56.17).

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