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2019 SEC Champs Day 1 Finals Live Recap – Relays

Braden Keith
by Braden Keith 53

February 19th, 2019 College, News, SEC

2019 Southeastern Conference Swimming & Diving Championships

The 2019 SEC championships kick off this evening in Athens, GA, with two diving events and four relays. You can check out our women’s and men’s fan guides to get a preview of all the action this week, and refresh this page throughout the evening as we bring you live updates.

Women’s 200 Medley Relay

  1. Tennessee, 1:34.26
  2. Missouri, 1:35.62
  3. Florida, 1:35.64

Haley Hynes put Missouri in the lead with a 23.63 leadoff, but Florida and moved ahead thanks to a 26.87 breaststroke leg by Vanessa Pearl. Meanwhile, Tennessee had gotten a 24.16 from Meghan Small and a 26.68 from Nikol Popov, putting them well into striking position at the halfway point.

Enter the Killer B’s. Madeline Banic went 22.51, the 2nd-fastest fly leg in the field, and Erika Brown dropped a 20.91 anchor leg, putting the Volunteers way ahead of everyone else, as they stopped the clock in 1:34.26. That breaks the old SEC Meet Record of 1:35.08 set by Tennessee in 2013.

Note: the American and NCAA Records on the live results are out-of-date.

Missouri ended up in 2nd, with Ann Ochitwa‘s 22.44 fly leg helping the Tigers to a 1:35.62 finish, just head of Florida, who touched in 1:35.64. Auburn and Texas A&M were right behind as well, going 1:35.73 and 1:35.86.

Auburn, Texas A&M, and Arkansas all were under the NCAA A cut as well, in each thanks in part to strong legs: Claire Fisch split 21.10 for Auburn, Raena Eldridge split 21.39 for Texas A&M, and Anna Hopkin split 21.01 for Arkansas. The Aggies also got a 26.33 breast leg from Anna Belousova.

In 4th, Auburn’s time of 1:35.73 was a new School Record, lowering the previous mark of 1:36.11 set back in 2012.

Men’s 200 Medley Relay

  1. Alabama, 1:22.19
  2. Tennessee, 1:22.79
  3. Florida, 1:23.25

This event is something of a speciality for Alabama – they won at NCAAs in 2016, then came in 2nd in 2017, with a time that was under the existing NCAA record, before fading to 9th last year. But the ‘Bama boys got back to their winning ways tonight with a 1:22.19 victory, setting a new SEC meet record in the process.

Zane Waddell led off in an eye-popping 20.22 – not only the fastest time in the field, but one of the fastest times in history. In fact, that appears to be the 2nd-fastest 50 back ever, behind only Ryan Murphy’s 20.20 at the 2016 NCAAs. Laurent Bams followed that up with a very strong 23.08 breaststroke leg, Knox Auberbach put up a 20.59 fly split that was strong enough to hold off the surge from other teams, and Robert Howard anchored in 18.30 to give Alabama at the win.

Tennessee took 2nd in 1:22.79, and showing just how important Waddell’s leadoff was, the combined times of Tennessee’s final three legs was faster than that of Alabama’s. Matthew Garcia led off with a solid 21.11, followed by a 23.45 by Michael Houlie, then Braga Verhage dropped a sub-20 fly leg (19.94), followed by Kyle Decoursey’s 18.29 anchor.

Florida was sporting a team that looked entirely different than the squad that finished 3rd at NCAAs, but they’ve rebuilt enough already to put up a 1:23.25, taking 3rd place. Kacper Stokowski led off in 21.06, Marco Gaurente split 23.53 on breast, Maxime Rooney, better known as a freestyler, put up a very strong 20.18 fly leg, and freshman Will Davis came on strong with a 18.48 anchor leg.

Women’s 800 Free Relay

  1. Texas A&M, 6:54.47
  2. Tennessee, 6:55.15
  3. Kentucky, 6:56.23

Meghan Small put Tennessee in the lead early with a 1:43.31 leadoff leg, with Auburn right behind, thanks to a 1:43.42 from Erin Falconer. Tennessee faded a bit as Tess Cieplucha and Stanzi Mosely went 1:44.68 and 1:46.48 on the 2nd and 3rd legs.

The Aggies meanwhile, got a 1:44.57 from Katie Portz, then a 1:43.06 from Claire Rasmus to move them into the lead, where they stayed the rest of the rest, thanks to a1:44.18 from McKenna DeBever, and a 1:42.66 anchor from Sydney Pickrem, to win in 6:54.47.

Pickrem’s anchor held off an even better swim from Erika Brown, who dropped a 1:40.68 to move up to 2nd, touching in 6:55.15.

Kentucky, meanwhile, got a 1:44.88 lead off from Ali Gayler, then fairly consisten splits from Asia Sedit (1:43.13), Riley Gaines (1:44.92), and Geena Freriks (1:43.30) to take 3rd in 6:56.23.

Those three swims represent the top three times in the nation this year. Auburn (6:57.00), Georgia (6:58.01), and Florida (7:01.32) all under the NCAA A cut as well.

Men’s 800 Free Relay

  1. Florida, 6:10.50
  2. Missouri, 6:11.77
  3. Texas A&M, 6:16.63

Florida junior Maxime Rooney completed the comeback as the Gators won the 800 free relay for the seventh consecutive year in a time of 6:10.50, breaking the SEC Championship Record set by their team in 2018 of 6:12.06.

Mizzou senior Mikel Schreuders gave the Tigers the advantage early, leading-off in a blistering 1:31.61. Not only does that swim crush his previous best time of 1:32.92, but he also snapped the 2011 meet record held by Conor Dwyer (1:31.73).

Giovanny Lima (1:32.94) and Jack Dahlgren (1:31.70) held the Missouri lead at 2.15 seconds heading into the anchor leg, but Rooney (1:32.10) got by Kyle Leach (1:35.52) for the victory.

Joining Rooney for Florida was Trey Freeman (1:33.83), Khader Baqlah (1:32.48), and Kieran Smith (1:32.09).

Texas A&M snagged third in 6:16.63, with their top split being a 1:32.63 second leg from sophomore Mark Theall, while Tennessee (6:18.64) edged Georgia (6:18.75) for fourth. The difference maker between those two teams was Volunteer senior Joey Reilman, who led off in a new personal best of 1:32.37.

TEAM SCORES

Women

  1. Florida, 165
  2. Texas A&M, 162
  3. Arkansas, 139
  4. Georgia, 132
  5. Auburn, 126
  6. Tennessee, 123
  7. Kentucky, 122
  8. Louisiana State, 118
  9. Missouri, 113
  10. South Carolina, 105
  11. Alabama, 97
  12. Vanderbilt, 60

Men

  1. Tennessee, 187
  2. Texas A&M, 158
  3. Missouri, 146
  4. Kentucky, 142
  5. Alabama, 135
  6. Florida, 123
  7. Auburn, 121
  8. South Carolina, 117
  9. Louisiana State, 115
  10. Georgia, 94

James Sutherland contributed to this report.

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Evan
5 years ago

Got the team scores swapped at the end of the article. If TENN LadyVols won both relays, wouldn’t that make sense for them to be atop the leader board, and not in fifth?

Andrew Mering
Reply to  Evan
5 years ago

Scores are correct. Tennessee didn’t win both relays. They won one and were second in the other. They are 5th because there was also a diving event where they only scored 3 points

Dude
5 years ago

Anybody know if there’s a livestream for prelims??

SaintJoseph
5 years ago

Looks to be an unprecedented 3 way battle with the Her-Aggies, GirlieVols and She-Gators (in that expected order of finish) fighting it out for the title. Obviously Erika DOWNTOWN Brown will earn SEC swimmer of the decade. Coach Kredichisism will also win Coach of the meet.On Mens’ side it looks to be HeMen-Missouri, We-dont-need-no-stinkiin-badges-A+M, FloridaHIMS (in that order) going down to the wire! Wow what a meet…

Ol' Longhorn
Reply to  SaintJoseph
5 years ago

It’s day 1.

H20Philosopher
Reply to  Ol' Longhorn
5 years ago

Beat me to it!

RenéDescartes
5 years ago

No underwater pullout for Popov (2nd 25) on the medley relay for Tenn.

VFL
5 years ago

What is the rule with reaction times again?

I see Vandy’s girl anchor and Rooney on Florida’s men’s medley both had negative reaction times, but neither were DQ’d.

Dude
Reply to  VFL
5 years ago

-.03 I think

Fast H20
Reply to  VFL
5 years ago

Would love to get a refresher on this as well. No DQ on negative reaction time?

KMizzou
5 years ago

looks like Mizzou scratched one of their best 200 freestylers, easily 3 seconds faster in the 800 free relay.

VFL
5 years ago

No mention of Tennessee’s SEC meet record! They’re only .11 off the American and .16 off the NCAA record. Anyone have video of this race? TAMU was in the first heat and their YouTube channel seems to be the only video source right now.

Hannah
Reply to  VFL
5 years ago

Actually Tennessee was over a second off the American and NCAA records. Both records dropped a lot last year. It was an amazing swim by Tennessee nonetheless and definitely puts them in serious contention to win the relay at NCAAs

VFL
Reply to  Hannah
5 years ago

Ahhh got it thanks! Think Small can drop a bit at NCAAs. Her turn looked long.

Could also do Brown on back, Small on fly, and Banic on free.

Also noteworthy that Popov has adopted the Molly Hannis no pullout.

VFL
5 years ago

Why did Tenn’s girl diver get DQ’d? Would she have placed top 8?

Swimmom1
Reply to  VFL
5 years ago

Live results says declared false start

Notaswimmer
Reply to  Swimmom1
5 years ago

What does this mean for diving? Entered but a no show? Really too bad. I don’t believe she had competed in any meets post Christmas holiday and did not dive at her own Senior Day Meet. A bit unfortunate for points, and for any swimmer/diverleft behind due to number limitation.

Superfan
Reply to  Notaswimmer
5 years ago

Injury maybe?

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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