Feb. 3, 2007
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Auburn senior Steve Segerlin won his second SEC title in as many days, setting a new school and facility record in the men's 3-meter event to highlight the second day of action at the SEC Swimming and Diving Championships at the Lancaster Aquatics Center in Lexington, Ky. For the second day in a row, all six Tiger divers in attendance reached the finals, as all four men and both women placed in the top eight of the prelims.
Segerlin posted a score of 427.80 to easily outdistance the rest of the field, as Florida's Jonathan Wilcox finished second with 395.45 points. Segerlin, who won the 1-meter competition Friday, broke his own school record of 403.70 set at last year's SEC meet, and has now won an SEC title on all three boards during his career. He will attempt to sweep the diving events during the platform competition Sunday.
"I'm real excited," said Segerlin. "I was really happy to keep my composure and stay sharp and consistent the whole time and to get it done. This helps my confidence going into tomorrow, because I get better the higher I go up."
Meanwhile, Auburn's other male divers excelled as well, as freshman Daniel Mazzaferro finished fifth, freshman Kelly Marx was sixth and sophomore Scott Morgan was seventh, helping Auburn rack up 59 points for a two-day total of 120 points. Marx (359.55) and Morgan (339.10) both set new personal highs, while Mazzaferro (360.30) missed his personal best by less than one-tenth of a point.
The quartet reached the finals earlier in the day with Segerlin finishing first in the prelims, while Marx was fourth, Mazzaferro was sixth and Morgan was eighth, and all four improved on their prelim scores in the finals.
On the women's side, sophomore Corey Gerlach, who won the 3-meter competition Friday, posted a career-best score of 308.00 to finish in third place on the 1-meter board. She closed strong, posting a score of 57.60 on her final dive to move up one spot to third and help her break her previous best by just over four points. Gerlach, who did not qualify for the finals of the 3-meter last year at the SEC meet, had finished seventh in the prelims earlier in the day with a score of 280.00.
Senior Lynnsey Segraves, who was fifth in the prelims with a score of 281.70, improved to 291.00 in the finals but again finished fifth. She set her career best as well while posting her second top-five finish in as many days after placing fifth on the 3-meter board Friday.
"We had another great prelims to get everyone in the finals," said Auburn diving coach Jeff Shaffer. "On the women's side, Corey did a great job. She missed a dive in the prelims that she came back and hit in the finals, and that really bumped her up. She's made a great deal of improvement, and Lynnsey was solid with a high score for her to end her SEC career.
"On the men's side, one of our goals for Steven was to break the 400 barrier and he scored 427 in a very tough contest. He really showed his senior leadership and stepped up, and I'm proud of the other three as well. Scott fought real hard to get into the finals this morning and Dan and Kelly are both improving freshmen that had solid scores. We still have some things to work on between now and the NCAA zone meet, but I couldn't be more proud of all six of them for performing this well at this level."
The diving competition will conclude Sunday with the prelims and finals of the men's and women's platform. The swimming competition will be held Feb. 7-10.