Medal count at 6 for Auburn swimmers at World Championships

Auburn University swimmers have now contributed six medals to their respective countries during the 2009 FINA World Championships in Rome.

By: Media General News Service | Alabama's13.com
Published: July 31, 2009

Auburn University swimmers have now contributed six medals to their respective countries during the 2009 FINA World Championships in Rome.

Along with Cesar Cielo’s gold-medal, world-record setting swim in the 100-meter freestyle Thursday and Fred Bousquet’s bronze-medal finish in the same event, Eric Shanteau won bronze in the 200 IM, moving the count to six.

Shanteau (1:55.36) was seventh in the 200m IM finals before dropping the hammer on his breaststroke leg, recording a 31.51 to jump in to fourth.
With only the freestyle to go, the Lilburn, Ga., native overtook Brazil’s Thiago Pereira (1:55.55) for the bronze.

Pulling double duty on Thursday, Shanteau also competed in prelims and semis for the 200m breast. His preliminary time of 2:08.55 set a new meet record and gave him the top seed heading into the evening’s semifinals. Things got interesting in heat one of semis as Australian Christian
Sprenger threw down a world record time of 2:07.31. Shanteau nearly took the record for himself in Heat 2, dropping a 2:07.42 to pick up a second seed and American record heading into tonight’s finals.

Auburn sophomore Ariana Vanderpool-Wallace set another national record at the 2009 FINA World Championships, placing 21st in the women’s 100m freestyle with a 54.96. The Nassau, Bahamas native also set the 100m butterfly record Sunday and swam the second leg of the Bahamian record setting 4x100m freestyle relay squad later that day.

Competing in the 50m free prelims today will be former Tigers Alexei Puniski, George Bovell and Jakob Andkjaer alongside incoming freshman Adam Brown.

Auburn swimmers have made the medal stand a total of 44 times at the FINA Long Course World Championships since first appearing in 1978.
The Tigers have totaled 20 gold medals in the process.

Former Tiger Rowdy Gaines leads the way in the medal count, earning a total of eight — five in 1982 and three in ’78. Gaines also leads the way in the gold medal count, winning a total of five for Team USA.

Auburn swimming and diving is represented at the 2009 FINA World Championships by a contingent of 17 athletes representing 12 nations.