COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Alabama swimming and diving senior Christopher Reid won his second-consecutive 200 backstroke title on the last day of the 2018 Southeastern Conference Championships held on the Texas A&M campus this week.

Reid posted a career-best 1:39.42 to take his second SEC title, bettering the field by more than a half second and his previous career-best time by more than two-tenths of a second.

" Christopher Reid defended his title in the 200 backstroke and that was really a great swim for us," Pursley said. "But for the whole team, top to bottom, the spirit was strong and the attitude was positive and that's hard to do when you're not having the kind of meet you want to have. That's the part of it I'm really pleased with and I think that will put us in a good position to learn from this and rebound and get to where we want to be."

The men's 400 freestyle relay of junior Robert Howard , sophomore Zane Waddell , Reid and junior Laurent Bams also made it to the podium, taking third with a season-best 2:50.24.

Howard took fifth in the men's 100 freestyle with a 42.58. Waddell won the B final and took ninth overall with a time of 42.80, while Bams was 13th after stopping the clock with a 43.75.

Senior Bailey Scott bettered her own school record in the 100 freestyle, touching the wall at 48.41 and finishing sixth. Freshman Flora Molnar touched the wall at 48.90 and senior Temarie Tomley went 49.11 in the B final of the 100 freestyle, to take 11th and 14th, respectively. After posting a 44.01 in prelims, senior Matthew Adams took 21st overall in the 100 freestyle.

The women's 400 freestyle of Molnar, Tomley, freshman Leonie Kullmann and Scott posted a 3:15.74 to take sixth place.

Senior Christina Lu tallied 234.95 points in the platform diving event to take 13th place. Junior Justine Macfarlane took 13th in the 200 breaststroke after posting a time of 2:10.66.

Freshman Michael Burris posted a career-best 1:57.09 to take 19th in the 200 breaststroke. His time ranks him seventh all-time at UA.

In the women's 200 backstroke, sophomore Kacey Oberlander clocked a career-best 1:56.42 in prelims before finish 23rd in finals. Sophomore Alexis Preski took 24th in the 1,650 freestyle with a 16:43.70.

The Tide men took eighth as a team after scoring 661.5 points, while the women were ninth after tallying 539 points.

"We've still got the NCAA championships coming up next month," Pursley said. "That's always our No. 1 focus each year and we're hoping to swim faster there than we did this week. If we do, we'll finish up on a positive note on the national stage. It doesn't always go your way. We've probably exceeded expectations in recent years and this was a little bit of a wake-up call. This is the kind of team that will respond well to that and get stronger and better because of it."

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