OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – With all five crews competing in Grand Final races on Sunday at Melton Hill Lake, the Alabama rowing team earned a trio of event medals and posted a fourth-place finish, its highest ever medal count and team finish at the conference championships.

"We expected to do well and, even though it's a young conference squad, they handled the pressure really well," UA head coach Larry Davis said. "Sometimes when you get in a big environment like a championship regatta, you start seeing nerves in the younger athletes but they handled it very well this weekend. I'm very proud of how poised and professional the team was."

After medaling at the conference championships for the first time last season, Alabama improved even further with three medals this season, taking silver in the First Varsity 4+ and Third Varsity 8+ and bronze in the Second Varsity 4+. Those performances helped position Alabama for a fourth-place team finish with 28 points, its highest team finish at a conference championship in program history.

"We got ourselves into the grand final in all five races and our finishes were some of the best we've had throughout the whole squad," Davis said. "Everybody stepped up their game. While we missed out on a top-three finish, we were really close and the team should be hungry heading into next season."

The 3V8+ was the first race of the day for Alabama, finishing neck-and-neck with Kansas State as the Tide's bow pushed across the line in 6:49.512, just two-tenths of a second ahead of the Wildcats in 6:49.716 to secure a silver medal for Alabama. The Tide's 2V4+ took home a bronze medal in the next race, finishing in 7:28.153. Alabama posted its third medal finish in the next race, leading a tight pack in the 1V4+ to place second in 7:13.496 just ahead of third-place Oklahoma (7:14.829) and fourth-place Tennessee (7:16.409).

With two races remaining on the schedule, Alabama finished sixth in the Second Varsity 8+ (6:57.389) and fourth in the First Varsity 8+ (6:42.057), good enough to give the Crimson Tide a three-point team lead over Kansas State to place fourth with 28 team points.

Senior Jennifer Parker and junior Nicole Lane , both members of the Tide's conference 1V8+ crew, earned All-Big 12 honors.

Having a young team see such success at the conference championships gives Davis confidence in the future growth and potential of the squad.

"When you're young, everything with rowing is exciting, new and different. The key is to keep that energy going through the four years and it looks like this crew has the ability to do that. They accomplished a lot of the goals we had this spring and I think the team understands that. We want to keep building and not be complacent. They understand that and there's a lot of depth that should be coming back."

Despite a relatively small senior class of six, their leadership helped set the standard that the returning rowers will need to build on in the coming years.

"You can't accomplish things without good leadership and we rely on the seniors to set the right example," Davis said. "Our seniors were a key part in our leadership throughout the whole spring. It is rewarding to see them stay with it and keep building on the progress we have worked for over their careers."

The strong finish at the conference championship closes a strong week on and off the water for the Crimson Tide, as they placed 30 rowers on the Academic All-Big 12 team earlier this week. Twenty-seven of the 30 earned first-team honors, including six with a 4.0 GPA, the highest total in both categories of any other Big 12 team.

For the latest information on Alabama rowing, follow the team on Twitter (@AlabamaRow) and Instagram (AlabamaRow) and Facebook. General athletic news can be found at @UA_Athletics on Twitter and Instagram and Alabama Athletics on Facebook.