Erin Falconer Drops 500 Free; Moseley Scratches 50 on Day 2 at SECs

2019 SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Tuesday, February 19 – Saturday, February 23
• Gabrielsen Natatorium, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Texas A&M Women (3x), Florida men (6x)(results)
• Live results
• Live Video – SEC Network
• Championship Central

The SEC is among the conferences that don’t require athletes to scratch their excess entries until the night before a prelims session. While we couldn’t find any heat sheets for Wednesday, day 2 at the 2019 SEC Championships, online, Meet Mobile does appear to have been updated with scratches.

The biggest scratch of the day is Auburn senior Erin Falconer, who won’t swim the 500 free, where she was seeded 11th. That leaves her with the 200 free, 100 back, and 200 back as her entries (and no individual swims on Wednesday). Falconer earned a new level of attention after her 1:43.42 leadoff of Auburn’s 800 free relay on Tuesday evening. That was her lifetime best in the event by 1.6 seconds and was more than 2 seconds faster than she swam at this same meet last year. That swim now ranks her 3rd in Auburn history, and she also led off the 200 medley relay, which went on to break the Auburn school record. She’ll now get an off session, with a maximum of 1 swim possible on Auburn’s 200 free relay (which is a timed final).

Falconer swam the 500 free at the team’s mid-season Georgia Tech Invitational.

In the women’s 50 free, which has a twist that there are actually fewer entrants than the 200 IM, Tennessee’s Stanzi Moseley won’t race. That means her 3 individual events will be the 200 free, 100 free, and 100 back. She was the 9th seed in the 50 free at this meet and finished 13th in the event at last year’s NCAA Championship meet in 22.21.

Moseley swam the 3rd leg on Tennessee’s 800 free relay on Tuesday evening, splitting 1:46.48.  She split 1:44.20 on that relay last season.

The women’s 200 IM field has stayed mostly intact from psych sheets at the top of the seeding.

The men’s races didn’t have any huge scratches, though the potential was there based on entries. Georgia’s Aidan Burns dropped the men’s 500 free as the 12th seed. He did swim this race at last year’s SEC Championship meet (he placed 19th), but this year will have to choose from among his 3 other individual entries: the 200 IM, 400 IM, 1650 free, and 200 back.

In the men’s 200 IM, Texas A&M’s Ben Walker scratched as the 9th seed. That means that he’ll race the 400 IM, 100 breast, and 200 breast at the meet, his only remaining entries. His freshman teammate Shaine Casas, who is arguably the most versatile freshman in the conference, is still swimming the 200 IM as the 2nd seed. That means that either the 100 fly (7th seed – 46.70), the 100 back (4th seed – 45.99), or the 200 back (4th seed – 1:40.04) is getting dropped.

The top seeds in the men’s 50 free held their seeds.