Produced by Coleman Hodges.
Reported by Braden Keith.
WOMEN’S 800 FREE RELAY
- Georgia, 6:55.56
- Texas A&M, 7:01.00
- Florida, 7:03.44
New year, same old Georgia middle-distance group. The Georgia Bulldogs, for the 7th-straight year, have won the SEC title in the women’s 800 free. In the process, they broke the University of Missouri Pool Record by almost 3 seconds.
The team of Hali Flickinger (1:43.19), Meaghan Raab (1:43.64), Shauna Lee (1:46.47), and Brittany MacLean(1:42.26) were dominant in this relay, and Flickinger’s leadoff also broke the Missouri Valley LSC Open Record in the 200 yard free. So dominant was this relay that Flickinger, Raab, and MacLean had the three fastest splits of any relay in the entire field.
Texas A&M again placed 2nd in 7:01.00, anchored by a 1:44.15 from junior Sarah Gibson.
Florida placed 3rd in 7:03.44 including a 1:43.77 from Natalie Hinds. Florida opted to use her on this relay rather than the opening 200 medley, where without her they finished just 10th out of 12 teams, and one can presume that she’ll be in the rest of the meet’s relays for the Gators.
The top 7 relays, including LSU (7:04.77), Tennessee (7:04.89), Kentucky (7:05.68), and Arkansas (7:06.08) all swam NCAA qualifying times.