After three days of competition, the Auburn Men's Swimming and Diving team finished sixth at the 2010 NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships at the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion at Ohio State University.
The Tigers opened the first day on a high note, as sophomore Adam Brown, sophomore Christopher Fox, junior Kohlton Norys and senior Gideon Louw finished the 200-meter freestyle relay to qualify for the evening's final at 1:17.23.
"It was a great team effort and I'm really proud of the way they fought," said coach Brett Hawke. "Everybody stepped up and moved forward tonight and did what they needed to do."
Brown and Louw joined sophomore Karl Krug in qualifying for the 50-meter freestyle final. The 200 free relay team finished the evening in second at 1:16.01, while Brown finished the 50 free in third place at 19.03. Louw came in fifth at 19.14 and Krug finished in 12th at 19.64.
Senior Kelly Marx' scored 369.80 points in the springboard competition, while the 400 medley relay team took second with a time of 3:05.24 to put Auburn at fourth overall.
"It was a very tough contest with more depth this year than last year," said diving coach Jeff Shaffer. "Kelly stepped up in the consolation, moved up in two places and improved his score."
The second day saw Louw, junior Jared White, junior Adam Klein and senior Tyler McGill finish second in the 200-meter medley relay. McGill next finished fourth in the 100 fly championship with a time of 46.01, while freshman Tony Cox was named All-American after he finished 12th in the 100-meter backstroke.
Norys, Fox, freshman Kyle Owens and senior Will Dove ended the day for Auburn in the 800-meter freestyle relay as the Tigers moved up to sixth place.
"We have definitely missed opportunities this meet," Hawke said. "The second day of competition wasn't what we thought it would be and what we know it could have been. I thought the 200 medley relay started the day great for us. However, the individual swims were not what we wanted to see."
Auburn passed four individuals and one relay team in the preliminaries of the final day of competition. Brown finished fourth in the 100 meter freestyle competition at 42.23, while Louw took seventh at 42.41. Klein qualified for the 200 meter breaststroke at 1:53.55, while
Marx finished in seventh with 396.50 points.
"What an awesome career Kelly has had at Auburn," Shaffer said. "To finish the way he did today by setting a personal-best score and diving with the country's best divers, I couldn't be more proud of him."
Moving into the finals, Louw swam his best time of the year, finishing at 42.06 to take third place. Brown came in immediately behind at 42.36 to end his first NCAA meet.
Klein finished third to clock in his own season-best time of 1:53.34, while Marx set a career record with his fourth-place finish 449.75. Auburn finished the competition in sixth place, coming in behind firstplace finisher Texas, California, Arizona, Stanford and Florida.
"Our finish in this meet really summarized the whole season for us," Hawke said. "It was a tough year, but we're going to take a break and the regroup. We know that we're a good team and we'll come back stronger next year."
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