Feb. 14, 2018
Aly Tetzloff is letting the rest of the Southeastern Conference know that she is in College Station to race.
The junior from Crown Point, Ind., anchored Auburn's 200 medley relay team to a third-place finish with the third-fastest final 50 freestyle of the night and then came back an hour later to swim a personal-best in leading off the 800 free relay in a time that puts her among the greatest in Auburn history in the 200 freestyle.
"The first night is definitely a show to the team that we can do this. It's the start of a snowball and it keeps rolling from there," Tetzloff said. "If we have a successful first two relays, chances are that is going to hype the team up for the rest of the meet."
"Aly is continuing her phenomenal season," head coach Brett Hawke said. "She dropped a monster split. We knew she was coming into this meet really confident and we wanted to lead her out and she did the job for us."
In what was the first race of the night, the 200 medley relay team of Erin Falconer, Carly Cummings, Haley Black and Tetzloff touched in 1:36.33, which was just .22 seconds off of the school record set in 2012. Falconer had a 24.44 leadoff split before giving way to Cummings' 27.68 breaststroke leg. Black then moved the Tigers up from sixth place to fourth with a pool-best 22.65 fly leg while Tetzloff anchored in 21.56, placing the quartet on the awards stand.
"That whole relay was just outstanding," Hawke said. "I thought all four splits were really strong and I'm really proud of the girls to pull themselves into third place and set us up for a really good meet."
Tetzloff also helped Auburn to a seventh-place finish in the 800 free relay, leading off in 1:44.81, which is tied for the 13th-fastest 200 freestyle performance in school history. As a foursome, Tetzloff, Falconer, Zoe Thatcher and Jessica Merritt finished in 7:05.26.
"I never really swim the two free so I just kind of went for it," Tetzloff said. "I went for it and tried to hold on."
One race later it was Zach Apple's turn to send the Auburn bench area into a frenzy, leading off the 800 free relay in a school record 1:32.96, lopping a whopping .44 seconds off the mark he established at last year's NCAA Championships.
As a whole, the Auburn men's foursome of Apple, Peter Holoda, Petter Fredriksson and Hugo Gonzalez swam a 6:19.87 to finish fifth.
"I knew that I could be close to my best time from last year and hopefully go a school record," Apple said. "We knew it was going to be close with Florida and Georgia, both great distance programs, so it was nice to have those guys next to us."
"We had a feeling Zach would be able to get under that school record but to see a (1:32) ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" the first time someone in school history is under 33 ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" is a really proud moment," Hawke said. "He is a super confident athlete and you want those guys leading off your relays. First night, we are in the meet and we're ready to go."
Auburn's men's 200 medley relay finished fifth in a time of 1:24.59. Gonzalez led off in 21.56, Tommy Brewer split 24.09 on the breaststroke leg, Liam McCloskey clocked a 20.24 fly leg, third-fastest in the heat, and Apple brought it home in 18.70
In the diving well, Alison Maillard posted a personal-best 315.40 to finish seventh in the women's 1-meter springboard competition after qualifying fifth with a 297.20. The sophomore from Houston scored 52.00-or better on five of her six dives to top her previous personal-best of 303.23 from her last competition, the dual meet victory at Florida in January.
"I'm real proud of Alison. She did what she needed to do," diving coach Jeff Shaffer said. "She was a little off on her reverse one-and-a-half but then stepped up in the finals. It's not often where you improve your score, have a personal-best and drop in the placing but that's just how tough this conference is."
In the men's 3-meter diving competition, Scott Lazeroff finished 13th with a 359.65, Pete Turnham was 21st with a 308.60 and Logan Andrews 22nd with a 304.14.
"I thought Scott was real steady, scoring 60 points a dive which is where we want to be," Shaffer said. "Pete started off great and then faltered on his third and fourth dive and let it get away from him on his last dive. Logan did some really good things based on what we've been training. As a freshman to come in and score in his first event is encouraging."
After the first session, Auburn's women are in fifth place with 121 points and the men are in seventh with 121 points.
The competition continues on Thursday with prelims and finals of the 500 free, 200 IM, 50 free, men's 1-meter and 200 freestyle relay. Prelims begin at 10 a.m. and finals at 6 p.m.
Livestats are available each session through 12thman.com and each session will air on SECN+.