2022 SEC SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, February 15 – Saturday, February 19, 2022
- Jones Aquatics Center, Knoxville, Tenn. (Eastern Time Zone)
- Defending Champion: Men- Florida (9x)
- Live Results
- Live Video (Watch ESPN)
- Championship Central
- Psych Sheets
- 2021 SEC Scoring Breakdown
- Day 1 SEC Finals Live Recap
The first day of the SEC Championships were fast.
The SEC Championships are always fast, but these were really fast. Almost every team came away from the day with something huge to be excited about. South Carolina’s divers. Texas A&M’s “A” cut. Alabama’s Meet Record. A whole lot of relay splits that are among the best ever.
In the medley relay alone, there were at least half-a-dozen all-time splits.
Margo Geer showed that, in spite of limited coaching experience, she’s having no trouble taking over the reigns as head coach at Alabama. The women’s team won a second-straight SEC title in the 200 medley relay in a new SEC Record, and the men finished 2nd – with a 22.63 breaststroke split from Derek Maas ranking as the third-best ever.
The Tennessee women had a good day in diving and came within half-a-second of the school record in the 200 medley relay, with no seniors in the group – meaning the battle is on with the Crimson Tide. They then came back and won the 800 free relay for just the second time in program history.
The Arkansas women finished 7th in 1:36.85, and even with the well-told story of a wave of transfers out of the program last year (more than a dozen), they still were 1.06 seconds faster than they were at the 2021 SEC Championship meet.
In the men’s 200 medley, Adam Chaney swam the 3rd-best 50 backstroke split ever to kick off Florida en route to a title and Meet Record, Luca Urlando (19.57) and Eric Friese (19.64) are both now among the top 5 all-time in the 50 fly on a relay start, and Tennessee freshman Jordan Crooks split 18.43 to anchor his team’s relay – not as good as Curry, but by most other measures a huge swim in his SEC Championship debut.
The A&M men swam their first SEC relay in the post-Shaine Casas era, and they hit an NCAA Automatic Qualifying Time in 1:24.00 for 5th place. That’s a huge confidence boost in the bumper year as they await a couple of huge recruiting classes, including the #1 overall recruit in the class of 2022 Baylor Nelson.
Teams under new coaches swam well too, LSU broke school records, all of them were faster than last year, and the Auburn women placed 4th in the 200 medley relay – two spots better than they would have been last year without a DQ. The Tigers took a hit when the men’s 200 medley was disqualified, but they would have been 3rd even with a safe exchange, which is a big bump from their 7th-place finish last season.
The Kentucky women were almost a second faster than they were last year, when they won their first SEC title in this event and their first SEC team title.
Even the Aggie women had some excitement in a 6th place 800 free relay finish – Chloe Stepanek led off in 1:42.40, which is her best time by half-a-second, and only .05 seconds slower than what it took to win NCAAs last year. The team was 9 seconds better than their previous season best.
The Florida men broke an SEC Record even with Kieran Smith being about a second slower than his best time on the relay leadoff.
Even the Kentucky men, after missing their seed in the 200 medley relay, bounced back with a big swim in the 800 free relay, breaking the school record and finishing 3rd in 6:14.35.
The only team that really struggled on day 1 were the Missouri Tigers men and women. All four relays were slower than seedIn fact, those were the only two teams that didn’t improve their seed times in all of their relays. Missouri was better than seed in just one of four relays, while the Kentucky men were slower than seed in both relays.
All-in-all, this was an electric start to the meet, all of the contenders are still very much contenders, and very little was cleared up about the team race. Just the way we like it.
Thanks for showing some love for Margo Geer after all the negative noise about her hiring. Maybe the Alabama AD isn’t an idiot after all.
Waiting for the official statement, but we’ve got the gist of it. They reviewed on camera and it was a good exchange.
Maas top 3 at ncaas?
Maybe, but those breaststrokes are TOUGH this year.
Yes but also at the meet where he went 51.38 he was 22.97 on the med relay so I could see possibly a 50.6 this week and that being slightly lowered at NCAAs. We shall see. I will note he has dropped quite a bit in this season.