TUSCALOOSA, Alabama, February 21. LAST night during the first day of competition at the Southeastern Conference Championships, Auburn came out on fire as the foursome of Ava Ohlgren, Caitlin Geary, Melissa Marik and Emily Kukors destroyed the American record in the women's 800-yard freestyle relay.
The quartet ripped off an American and NCAA record time of 6:57.28 to surpass the 7:00.89 set by California at last year's NCAA Championships.
Ohlgren opened the race with a 1:43.68, while Geary clocked a 1:43.85 in the second leg. Marik turned in a 1:45.51 third leg, while Kukors brought it home with an anchor leg of 1:44.24.
Also of note in the race, Tennessee's Christine Magnuson became the second-fastest swimmer ever in the 200 free with a leadoff time of 1:43.00. That just nipped Katie Hoff's 1:43.10, but is well behind Natalie Coughlin's 1:41.66.
More coverage of the evening can be found here.