University of Tennessee Athletics
University of Tennessee
SEC Swimming Championships
WOLFE AND VOLS CAPTURE FOURTH-PLACE AT SEC CHAMPIONSHIPS
February 10, 2007 | Men's Swimming & Diving
Feb. 10, 2007
The Tennessee swimming and diving team conclude the SEC Championships Saturday at Lexington, Ky., in fourth-place. Auburn won the meet, followed by Florida in second and Georgia in third to round out the top-three.
"We had a very strong day and even made a move on Georgia, but they held out for third," UT head coach John Trembley said. "The highlight of the evening, however, was Michael Wolfe in the 200 backstroke. He qualified for NCAAs in the race and placed fourth."
Wolfe clocked-in with a time 1:45.30. A Florida trio led by Lucas Salatta captured the top three spots.
"In the 100 freestyle, Barry Murphy and Nolan Morrell both improved on their time this morning in preliminaries," Trembley said. "Octavio Alesi led the team in that race and came away in fifth."
The junior completed the race in 44.10. Morrell and Murphy placed 11th (44.54) and 13th (44.68), respectively.
"Michael Russo, in the 200 breaststroke, swam a season-best, moved up in the finals and contributed considerably to the team effort," Trembley said.
Russo only just managed to make the finals as he finished 16th in the preliminaries. However, he moved up four spots during the final to gain the Volunteers five points. The Norcross, Ga., native scraped 3.7 seconds off his preliminary time to finish in 2:01.10.
"Greg Houchin also swam a nice race tonight in the 200 butterfly," Trembley said. "Czarnecki, like Russo, moved up in his final as well. And Wolfe achieved a season-best in the race."
Wolfe trailed LSU's Julius Gloeckner by only six one-hundredths of a second to seal up sixth-place (1:46.62).
"The 400 freestyle relay was a great end to a great day. The team of Alesi, Morrell, Murphy and Jim Dabney posted a third-place finish. Alesi led off with his best 100 freestyle of the meet in 40.38. Morrell fought through a stomach virus and still swam a great leg in 44.12. Murphy had his best 100 freestyle of the meet with a time of 43.8. And Dabney had his lifetime best at 44.4."
The final race was to no avail for other teams as Auburn won the 400 freestyle relay and finished the meet ahead of second-place by more than 100 points.
"All in all, today was a very strong team-performance, particularly after starting so slowly on the second day," Trembley said. "Some of our young team members really stepped up and gained valuable SEC experience. Our veterans - who were not shaved or tapered - sent a message to many teams nationwide. We are very eager to return to Knoxville, Tenn. We hit the weight room Monday morning at 5:45 a.m. We invite our alumni and anyone in Knoxville or at the University to join us. It is four and a half weeks until we hit the sunny beaches of Minneapolis, Minn., for the NCAA Championships."
In addition, Georgia hosts a meet Friday in Athens as a last-inch effort to qualify swimmers for the NCAA Championships.
Players Mentioned
