Cesar Cielo: won NCAA Swimmer of the Year for the second year in a row.following his performance at the NCAA championships. Pete Riley / PHOTO EDITOR
Auburn’s swimming and diving teams headed to the NCAA Championships in hope of continuing a five-year winning streak but fell short finishing fifth overall.
Arizona won the championship, the first ever in school history.
Despite an overall fifth place finish, the swimmers performed well individually.
For the second year in a row, Cesar Cielo, a junior from St. Barbara, Brazil, was named the NCAA Swimmer of the year after impressive performances at the NCAA Championships.
Cielo earned seven All-America honors and won four NCAA titles.
In addition, he set Auburn, NCAA and U.S. Open records while competing at the meet.
Cielo felt good about his performance at the meet.
“It’s pretty spectacular after a whole year of training to be able to attain my goals,” Cielo said. “All of the hard work this year certainly motivated me.”
The four NCAA titles Cielo earned at the meet total 10 in his career, beating the Auburn record held by current assistant coach Brett Hawke.
Senior Alexei Puninski also set a personal best that ranks fourth all-time at Auburn in the 100 freestyle championship.
Puninski said he’s proud to be a part of the Auburn Tiger team and family.
“I am happy with my career at Auburn,” Puninski said. “It has been great to be a part of three NCAA Championships.”
Although Puninski was a bit disappointed about the team’s fifth overall ranking, he feels good about the opportunity the team has next year.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t capture the title, but we can learn from our mistakes this year,” Puninski said. “If the guys keep training and keep stepping up, the guys left are going to be great next year.”
Even though Auburn had hoped to continue its winning streak to six years, both the coaches and the swimmers are proud of their performances.
“We got out of the pool with our heads up, although we didn’t get the place we wanted,” Cielo said. “Everyone did their personal best, but we don’t plan to finish fifth again next year.”
Thursday’s highlights of the meet were Cielo swimming an 18.47 in the leadoff leg of the relay, setting a new NCAA and U.S. Open Record.
Cielo also captured his second championship of the night, swimming an 18.52 in the 50-yard freestyle.
Friday Auburn set a new NCAA and US Open record in the 200-yard medley relay with Scott Goodrich, David Maras, Puninski and Cielo swimming 1:23.24.
Cielo was named the NCAA swimmer of the year Saturday and became the first swimmer ever to break 41 seconds in the 100 yard freestyle.
Arizona won the meet with 500.5 points. Auburn finished fifth with 316 points, its lowest finish since 2001.
