Hot-or-Not: Florida Men Pull Away from Texas A&M on Day 3 of SEC Championships

2020 SEC SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Tuesday, February 18 – Saturday, February 22, 2020
• Auburn, AL – James E. Martin Aquatic Center
• Prelims/Finals: 9:30 AM/5:30 PM Wed-Sat, 10/4:20PM Tues (Central Standard Time)
• Defending Champion: Florida (7x) (results)
• Live Video – SEC Network+ (prelims), ESPN (finals)
• Men’s Fan Guide
• Women’s Fan Guide
• Psych Sheets
• Championship Central
• Estimated NCAA Invite Times
• NCAA ‘A’ Cuts
• Day 1 Finals Recap
• Live Video (Wednesday Finals)
• Heat Sheets
• Live Results

Data Compiled by Barry Revzin

• See Also: Hot-or-Not, SEC Championships Day 2

The 4-time defending SEC Champion Texas A&M women clawed their way into 4th place on day 3 of the 2020 SEC Swimming & Diving Championships, sitting within striking distance of 3rd-place Kentucky.

While the Aggies don’t seem like they’ve got the firepower this year to win another team title, they continue to have the best performance-against-seed after day 3 of the meet.

Not a lot changed at the top of the day 3 Hot-or-Not rankings, though the Vanderbilt Commadores did have a good session in spite of not scoring any points on Thursday. That was led by 6 season-best times from their 100 butterfly group.

In terms of the battle for the team title, Tennessee and Florida both have middling improvement levels to show so far in this meet. The two teams sort of reversed roles on Thursday: while Florida had more swimmers that dropped time versus seed overall than Tennessee, Tennessee had more swimmers that dropped more time than did the Gators, including for example Amanda Nunan, who dropped almost 7 seconds in the 400 IM to move from non-scorer to C finalist. Those are the kind of moves at the bottom end of a table that can make-or-break an SEC Championship.

WOMEN’S TEAM SCORES THROUGH DAY 3:

  1. Tennessee, University of, Knox  632.5   2. University of Florida           585.5
  3. Kentucky, University of         491.5   4. Texas A&M University              491
  5. Auburn University                 478   6. Georgia, University of            456
  7. University of Alabama           351.5   8. University of Arkansas            254
  9. Missouri                          252  10. Louisiana State University        236
 11. South Carolina, University of,    228  12. Vanderbilt University              90

Meanwhile, in the men’s team race, the Florida Gators have begun to pull away from the Texas A&M men thanks to 9 A-final swims on Thursday (as compared to just 1 for the Aggies). The Florida men showed about the same improvements on day 3 as they did on day 2, and the A&M men did a little worse against seed on day 3.

While Thursday simply lined up as a good day for the Florida men, A&M doesn’t have enough room left in this meet to simply ‘chip away.’ If they want to get back into contention, they’ll have to start seeing more big drops on Friday. Highlighting the difference in fates between the two schools: about 75% of the A&M men’s individual swims at this meet have dropped less than 2% versus seed. About 75% of the Florida men’s individual swims at this meet have dropped more than 2% versus seed.

MEN’S TEAM SCORES THROUGH DAY 3:

  1. University of Florida           694.5   2. Texas A&M University            538.5
  3. Georgia, University of          493.5   4. University of Alabama           438.5
  5. Tennessee, University of, Knox    422   6. Kentucky, University of           416
  7. Missouri                          415   8. Auburn University                 385
  9. South Carolina, University of,    265  10. Louisiana State University        258