Alabama Swimming and Diving Sweeps Delta State in Early Season Opener

Zane Waddell won the 100 free with a 44.92. Photo Courtesy: Robert Sutton/Alabama Athletics

In the first meet of the 2019-20 collegiate swimming and diving season, the Alabama men and women swept Delta State in Coley Stickels’ debut as the Crimson Tide head coach.

Alabama’s women beat Delta State 204-91, while the Tide men downed the Statesmen 186-109. Overall, the Tide won 27 of 32 events, including all four relays. In total, 18 different men and women won individual events for the Tide, while four swimmers and one diver picked up a pair of individual wins on the day.

Today’s meet marked the seventh year in a row that Alabama and DSU have competed in the first NCAA meet of the season, with Alabama going undefeated over that stretch.

HEAD COACH COLEY STICKELS SAID

“This meet was all about getting a starting point and now we just have to go out and get better from here. Obviously, it’s very early in the season and we have a lot of work ahead of us, and while the energy on the deck was good and we got up and competed even after some hard weeks of practice, we will need to swim at a much higher level to be competitive in the SEC. We made some technical mistakes that have to be cleaned up. This was a learning experience for the team as a whole and a wakeup call for some to realize we aren’t where we need to be.”

INSIDE THE RESULTS

Alabama won 27 out of 32 events against Delta State, with the women winning 14 events and the men taking 13, while combining to sweep the top-two spots in 23 events, including all four relays
The Crimson Tide came out on fire, taking first and second place in the first seven races of the meet and closing things out by taking first place in the last 11 events
A total of 25 women and 24 men competed in the Crimson Tide’s opener, while eight women and six men made their Alabama debuts
For the women, sophomore Rhyan White, juniors Kaila Wong and Flora Molnar along with senior Allie Surrency opened the meet by winning the 200 medley relay with a 1:42.64, while Molnar, sophomores Morgan Scott and Kalia Antoniou along with Surrency closed things out with a 3:25.66 to win the 400 freestyle relay
On the men’s side of the slate, senior Zane Waddell and freshman Liam Bell combined with juniors Tyler Sesvold and Sam DiSette to open things up with a 1:28 to win the 200 medley relay, while sophomore Jonathan Berneburg, DiSette, Sesvold and Waddell closed out the meet by finishing first in the 400 free relay with a 3:01.41
Eight different women and 10 different men won individual events for the Tide, with sophomores Kensey McMahon (1,000 freestyle and 200 butterfly), Scott (50 and 200 freestyle) and White (100 and 200 backstroke) along with freshman Tanesha Lucoe (1-meter and 3-meter springboard) doubling up for the women, while Bell (100 breaststroke and 200 individual medley) was the only double winner for the men
Four rookies earned wins in their Crimson Tide debuts, with Cam Auerbach (200 freestyle), combining with Scott, who joined the Tide as a sophomore after transferring from Indiana, Lucoe and Bell
Other individual wins for the Tide women came from Antoniou (100 freestyle), senior Cameron Brown (500 freestyle), Molnar (100 butterfly) and sophomore Cat Wright (200 individual medley)
The men also got victories from sophomore Nico Hernandez-Tome (1,000 freestyle), DiSette (50 freestyle), Waddell (100 freestyle), junior Alex Robinson (200 backstroke), sophomore Nico Perner (200 breaststroke), senior Daniel Kober (500 freestyle), Sesvold (100 butterfly) and sophomore Kevin Li (3-meter diving)

— The above press release was posted by Swimming World in conjunction with Alabama Swimming and Diving. For press releases and advertising inquiries please contact Advertising@SwimmingWorld.com.

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