Nov. 2, 2007
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Competing for the last time in the UT Student Aquatic Center, the No. 11 Tennessee swimming and diving team defeated defending national champion Auburn, 170-127, in Knoxville.
The lost is the first opening-meet loss for the No. 2-ranked Tigers since 1990 and the fist for Richard Quick as Auburn head coach.
"I do not know how many Auburn teams over the last five championship seasons could have won that meet against a very prepared Tennessee team today," said Quick. "The only thing I can say is that we lost this battle, but the season is a marathon and this is just a leg of it."
Auburn did pick up one provisional standard in Friday's meet, making the "B" cut in the 200 medley relay. The team of Scott Goodrich, David Maras, Alexei Puninski and Jakob Andkjaer finished second in the event with a time of 1:28.25.
The Volunteers won all but one of the swimming events and split in the diving events.
The Tigers' diving impressed Quick in his first outing as AU's head coach since 1982 as three of Auburn's four divers earned zone-qualifying scores.
"I thought our divers did a really good job today," said Quick. "Kelly (Marx), Dan (Mazzaferro) and Caleb (Dunnichay) did an outstanding job coming back on the 3-meter after getting beat on the 1-meter."
On the 1-meter board, Mazzaferro finished second with a score of 314.25, followed by Marx in third with 301.87. Both scores are zone qualifiers.
Marx came back to win on the 3-meter board with a score of 364.58 while Mazzaferro and Dunnichay made it a Tiger sweep, finishing second and third, respectively.
All three divers posted zone-qualifying scores on the 3-meter. Marx finished with a score of 364.58, Mazzaferro finished with 330.90 and Dunnichay scored a 324.60.
The men return to action against Nov. 16 against in-state rival Alabama. The meet is the home opener for the Tigers and is slated to begin at 4 p.m. in the James E. Martin Aquatic Center.