The reigning NCAA champion Auburn men’s swimming and diving team enter the 2009-10 season ranked No. 5 in the initial College Swimming Coaches Association of America poll.
The CSCAA ranked the Auburn women seventh nationally.
The Tiger men returned seven national champions — Adam Klein, Gideon Louw, Tyler McGill, Kohlton Norys, Michael Silva, Pascal
Wollach and Jared White — plus five other All-Americans from last year’s championship squad.
Eight All-Americans return for the Auburn women, including seniors Melissa Marik and Ava Ohlgren, junior Caitlin Geary and sophomore Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace.
Geary led the squad with six All-America honors, while Marik, Ohlgren and Vanderpool-Wallace each recorded five.
Texas picked up the top spot in the men’s poll with 12 first-place votes. Stanford is in second, while California, Florida and Auburn round out the top five.
Five other SEC schools are in the top 25, including Georgia and Tennessee at Nos. 9 and 10, respectively.
Georgia’s women top the polls with 12 first-place votes. Stanford follows in second with Arizona in third.
Texas and Florida round out the top five and are followed by California and Auburn.
Three other SEC schools are among the top 25.
Auburn returns to the James E. Martin Aquatic Center for a SEC matchup with perennial national contender Georgia on Friday. Diving begins at 3 p.m., while swimming is set to start at 4.
Admission is free.
Louw, Gardocki earn SEC weekly honors
Louw and freshman Katie Gardocki each picked up their first career Southeastern Conference weekly honor after leading the Auburn swimming and diving teams to wins over in-state rival Alabama on Thursday.
Louw, who hails from Pretoria, South Africa, was named SEC Male Swimmer of the Week after recording two B times and two individual wins to lead Auburn to a 142-101 win over the Crimson Tide.
Louw opened the meet with a win in the 50 free and finished in a NCAA B time of 19.87, the second-best time recorded in the NCAA this season. He also picked up a B time in the 100 free, finishing in 44.20. That time is fourth-best in the country.
Louw closed out the day as a part of the 800-free relay squad that took first in a B time of 6:41.58.
Gardocki, a Suffield, Conn., native, earned SEC Female Freshman of the Week after picking up double wins for the second-consecutive meet, as the freshman led the Tigers to a 134-107 win over Alabama.
Gardocki recorded her first-career B cut time, taking first in the 1650 free in 16:34.88.
She followed with a first-place finish in the 500 free in 4:53.40.
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