Auburn's men's streak continues; UT divers rack up awards at SEC meet

UT divers rack up SEC awards

By Andrew Gribble

gribblea@knoxnews.com

The last time Auburn left the SEC swimming and diving championships without a title for its men's squad, it was inside the old Student Aquatic Center on Tennessee's campus.

That was 1996.

One year later, Australian sprinter Brett Hawke joined the team. Now the Tigers coach, he's yet to see this four-day event end any other way.

"We hadn't won much in our history back then,"said Hawke, the third-year head coach who returned to the program as an assistant in 2006. "For us, it was something we were really hungry to do. I don't think we've lost that fire or hunger one bit."

Under their third coach since The Streak began in 1997, the Tigers (730.5), buoyed by a strong start and a loaded field in the 100 freestyle, held off Florida (700) to claim their 16th consecutive championship.

Georgia (521) leapfrogged UT (459) into third place when it took the gold, silver and bronze medals in the meet-opening 1,650-yard freestyle and never relinquished its lead over the Vols, who settled for fourth place.

"It never gets old," said a freshly drenched Hawke, who smartly removed his shoes moments before he was thrown into the diving pool at the Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic

Center.

"It's just incredible that the streak is still continuing. Back then, when I first started, I never thought it'd be this long and I never thought I'd be a part of it."

On the women's side, Georgia (781) was lifted early by senior Wendy Trott, who broke her own record with a time of 15:47.04 in the 1,650 freestyle, and never looked back to claim its third consecutive title. The Lady Vols (629.5), led by SEC women's swimming coach of the year Matt Kredich, maintained their strong performance from Friday to finish in second place, their best finish at the SEC championships since 1990.

Auburn's men led by just 20 points coming into Saturday night's action, but they promptly created some comfortable separation.

Swimming in front of a number of friends and family, Auburn's Kyle Owens, a Johnson City native, collected his fifth gold medal of the week (two individual, three relays) in the 200 backstroke. He was joined at the medal stand by teammate Max Murphy, who finished second.

"Since September, all three of us have been telling each other, it's going to come down to this," said Owens, including Brandon Siemasko, who finished 13th in the event. "We proved something.

"Home sweet home. It feels good."

Florida made up some ground on Auburn's lead, which ballooned to nearly 100 points, by taking second (Eduardo Solaeche) and third (Matt Elliott) in the 200 breaststroke and first (Marcin Cieslak), second (Dan Wallace) and fourth (Cameron Martin) in the 200 butterfly.

All that did was require Auburn to finish the meet-ending 400 freestyle relay without disqualifying. The Tigers did just that and, for good measure, finished in first.

"We knew it was going to come down to the last day and we had to perform," Hawke said. "For some reason, this team just wakes up confident on the last day. It was never any doubt from the moment we woke up this morning."

UT's men did not pick up a medal Saturday. Sophomore Samuel Rairden finished fourth in the 200 backstroke and senior Jake Epperson did the same in the 200 breaststroke.

The effort landed the Vols one spot lower than their third-place finish from last season, but it was a result met with little disappointment.

In less than a year, the Vols lost longtime assistant coach Joe Hendee to brain cancer, their longtime head coach John Trembley — whose actions of "gross misconduct" prompted his abrupt firing in January and led to what is still an ongoing criminal investigation — and one of their top swimmers, Ryan Harrison, because of a "violation of team policy."

"With everything we've gone through, the athletes we've lost, I'm really pretty proud of that (finish)," said interim coach Lars Jorgensen, whose swimmers donned T-shirts with a picture of his face and the word "HOPE" scrawled underneath it.

"We have a lot of work to do to become a championship program. I feel like we've made some strides with some of the things we're trying to instill in the program."

One day after it officially swept the diving events, the men behind it were honored with postseason awards.

Longtime UT diving coach Dave Parrington was named the SEC's Diving Coach of the Year. Senior Ryan Helms, who won gold in the 1- and 3-meter events earlier in the week, took home Male Diver of the Year while freshman Mauricio Robles, who finished first on the platform, garnered Freshman Diver of the Year honors.

Andrew Gribble may be reached at 865-342-6327. Follow him at http://twitter.com/Andrew_Gribble and http://blogs.knoxnews.com/gribble