The Alabama swimmer Christopher Reid, a senior, won a second-consecutive 200 backstroke title on the last day of competition at the Southeastern Championships held on the campus of Texas A&M.
Reid posted a career best time, taking the SEC title for a second straight year by more than a half second.
“Christopher Reid defended his title in the 200 backstroke and that was really a great swim for us,” coach Dennis Pursley said in a press release. “But for the whole team, top to bottom, the spirit was strong and the attitude was positive and that’s hard to do when you’re not having the kind of meet you want to have. That’s the part of it I’m really pleased with and I think that will put us in a good position to learn from this and rebound and get to where we want to be.”
Overall, the CrimsonTide men took eighth as a team after scoring 661.5 points, while the women were ninth after tallying 539 points.
The men’s 400 freestyle relay of junior Robert Howard, sophomore Zane Waddell, Reid and junior Laurent Bams also made it to the podium, finishing third.
Howard took fifth in the men’s 100 freestyle and Waddell won the B final to take ninth overall. Laurent Bams finished 13th overall, while Senior Matthew Adams finished 21st.
Senior Bailey Scott finished sixth in the women’s 100 freestyle, besting her own school record. Freshman Flora Molnar and senior Temarie Tomley came in 11th and 14th, respectively.
The women’s 400 freestyle of Molnar, Tomley, freshman Leonie Kullmann and Scott took sixth place.
Senior Christina Lu finished the platform diving event in 13th place. Junior Justine Macfarlane took 13th in the 200 breaststroke.
Freshman Michael Burris had a career best finish and took home 19th in the 200 breaststroke, ranking him seventh all-time at UA.
In the women’s 200 backstroke, sophomore Kacey Oberlander set a career-best during prelims, and finished the final 23rd overall. Sophomore Alexis Preski took 24th in the 1,650 freestyle.
“We’ve still got the NCAA championships coming up next month,” Pursley said. “That’s always our No. 1 focus each year and we’re hoping to swim faster there than we did this week. If we do, we’ll finish up on a positive note on the national stage. It doesn’t always go your way. We’ve probably exceeded expectations in recent years and this was a little bit of a wake-up call. This is the kind of team that will respond well to that and get stronger and better because of it.
