MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – A mainstay of Alabama's relays through his first two years, junior Robert Howard made the first individual championship final of his career at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships Thursday night, taking seventh place in the 50 freestyle in a time of 19.09.

Alabama is in 12th place in the team standings after Thursday's events with 38 points here in the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center on the University of Minnesota campus.

"It was a solid first day for us," UA head coach Dennis Pursley said. "We were a little disappointed that we didn't make the A final of the 200 freestyle relay, but we bounced back tonight and moved up four places in finals to get off to a good start."

Already the second fastest 50 freestyler in Alabama history, the Alexander City, Ala., native shaved more than a tenth of a second off his previous personal best with a 19.00 in prelims.

"That was a good swim for Bob in the 50," Pursley said. "And his 40.8 helped our medley relay move up and finish the night on a real positive note."

Alabama opened the night with a 10th-place finish in the 200 freestyle relay. Howard, sophomore Zane Waddell and seniors Braxton Young and Christopher Reid combined to post a season-best 1:16.35, less than a quarter of a second off the school record. Howard's leadoff split was the second-fastest time of his career after his morning swim in the 50 freestyle, while Young and Reid posted the fastest relay splits of their careers.

"We finished tonight with 38 points, which is more than we had at this point last year when we finished 10th," Pursley said. "Our goal is to finish in the top-10 again this year, but it's going to take more best efforts on all our swims going forward."

The Tide's 400 medley relay, sitting in sixth place in the B final at the 300-yard mark, roared back into third place in the heat and 11th overall after a 40.82 final leg by Howard, pacing the Tide to a season-best 3:05.20.

Senior Luke Kaliszak led off the relay with the backstroke leg, followed by junior Laurent Bams on the breaststroke and Waddell on the butterfly leg. Howrad's leg was tied for the second fastest of the night.

The Crimson Tide returns to action on Friday with the prelims of the 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle, 100 breaststroke, 100 backstroke and 200 medley relay.

Prelims are slated to get underway at 10 a.m. CT on Friday.

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