TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – It was a win for the Auburn women and a narrow loss for the Auburn men as the two squads battled nationally ranked Alabama in the final fall dual meet for Auburn's swimming and diving teams.
"Obviously there were some really, really good performances on both the women's and men's side," Auburn head coach Gary Taylor said. "I'm really proud of the divers, they absolutely dominated the boards in both meets, getting some big wins and getting us off to a great start."
Auburn won 13 out of 16 events en route to the 188-110 women's win over the No. 23 Alabama women. Erin Falconer, Emily Hetzer, Bailey Nero, Aly Tetzloff and Alison Maillard each won two events for the 17th-ranked Auburn women.
Falconer was impressive from the beginning, leading off Auburn's top 400 medley relay in 53.53 and then won the 100 back in 53.70 three events later. The junior also won the 200 back in 1:55.90, giving her her first sweep of the backstroke events and five total individual event wins this season. She closed out the meet by anchoring the winning 400 free relay as Aly Tetzloff, Claire Fisch and Julie Meynen teamed up with her to go 3:20.68 to win the event by almost three full seconds.
"Erin did what she has done all year, stepping up and winning events," Taylor said.
Hetzer continued the impressive start to her freshman campaign, sweeping the distance free events to pick up her third and fourth individual wins of the year. She won the 500 free in 4:49.21 and the 1000 free in 9:49.08. She also came back one event after the 1000 free to take third in the 200 free (1:49.93).
"Emily really dominated the 1000 and then came back and dominated the 500," Taylor said. "Those are fantastic performances by the freshman."
The senior Nero won the 200 fly (1:59.68) and 400 IM (4:17.19) to claim her fourth and fifth individual wins of the season.
Tetzloff was also a double winner for the women, taking the 100 free in 49.64 and the 100 fly in 54.08. Both wins were part of 1-2 Auburn finishes with Claire Fisch taking second in the 100 free (50.35) and Nero taking second in the 100 fly (54.54).
"Bailey got a couple of good wins for us, taking the 200 fly and capping off the individual events with the 400 IM win," Taylor said. "Aly had two tough individual swims and really performed well. She got out early in both the 100 fly and 100 free, holding on in the end in the 100 free, as a part of two 1-2 finishes."
The remaining individual swimming wins went to Jessica Merritt in the 200 free (1:49.37) and Fisch in the 50 free (22.74).
Auburn's men hung tough with the No. 18 Alabama men but came up just short, falling 160-140. Auburn claimed seven individual wins, with Josh Dannhauser earning two of them.
Dannhauser, the sophomore from Durban, South Africa, earned the first individual wins of his Auburn career, sweeping the distance free events. He won the 500 free in 4:29.36 and the 1000 free in 9:17.99, out-pacing teammate and runner-up Russell Noletto, who went 4:30.40 and 9:23.11, respectively, in each event.
"Josh picked up right where he left off, getting two big wins in the distance events," Taylor said. "He has had a fantastic season so far and he really dominated the competition today."
Santiago Grassi also had a double-win Friday, sweeping the fly events. The junior won the 100 in 47.45 and the 200 in 1:47.80. The wins were the first of the season for the Santa Fe, Argentina, native.
"That was a big-time win in the 200 fly for Santi," Taylor said. "It came at a point in the meet where we really needed the win. Then he came back in the 100 fly and goes 1-3-4 with Foster Ballard (49.45) and David Crossland (49.76) to turn the tide, so-to-speak."
Senior Tommy Brewer closed out the men's individual race wins by getting to the wall first in the 200 breast in 2:00.76. He also had a runner-up finish in the 100 breast (55.14).
"Tommy had a couple of really good individual performances, with a pair of in-season bests," Taylor said.
"All-in-all the men performed well and showed a lot of heart and determination," Taylor said. "They could have walked away but they kept at it. I certainly hate losing, more than I love winning, but I couldn't be more proud of the effort I saw from the men's team. They never backed down and had a shot to win the meet going into the last two events."
DIVING RECAP
It was a pair of 1-2 sweeps on both springboards for both the Auburn men and women, collecting a combined seven Zone Qualifying Scores in the process.
"It was a great day for us," diving coach Jeff Shaffer said. "We wanted to get the meet off to a strong start and we ended up sweeping both boards. That was what we were looking to do – dive consistently."
Maillard and Wendy Espina went 1-2 in the women's competition, with Maillard scoring a 308.70 to win the 3-meter and a 305.55 to win the 1-meter, both of which were Zone scores. Espina scored a 253.28 on the 3-meter and 260.10 on the 1-meter to take second both times.
It was also back-to-back top-two finishes for Conner Pruitt and Scott Lazeroff. Pruitt won the 1-meter with a career-best 343.43 and the 3-meter with a 364.58. Lazeroff was just behind him both times, scoring a season-best 339.08 on the 1-meter and a 361.20 on the 3-meter, with all four of those scores being Zone Qualifiers.
Logan Andrews also earned his first Zone Qualifying Score of the year in finishing third on the 1-meter with a career-best 310.28. He came in fourth on the 3-meter (312.68).
"I am really proud of everyone's effort today," Shaffer said. "Logan competed for the first time and earned a Zone Score. I'm looking forward to giving them the opportunity to really perform academically now, finish the semester strong with finals and then get ready for our invitiational."
WHAT'S NEXT
Auburn's swimmers are done with the fall portion of their schedule and will next compete on Saturday, Jan. 5, in a home dual meet against Georgia Tech.
Auburn's divers will host the three-day Auburn Diving Invitational Dec. 17-19 at the Martin Aquatics Center. Admission is free.
Auburn S&D knocks of Alabama women, fall to the men
