2015 SEC Swimming & Diving Championships: Day 3 Ups/Downs/Scoring Projections

In team battles that are expected to be as contentious as the SEC Championships, every swimmer in every A, B, or C final can have a huge impact on a team’s overall finish. With that in mind, let’s take a look at who ended up where after day 2’s prelims. For the sake of time, we’ll focus on the teams expected to be contending for top 3 finishes at this meet.

For those unfamiliar with the terminology: “Up” means a swimmer who is in the A-final, as those swimmers cannot fall lower than 8th barring a DQ. “Mid,” new for this year, is what we’ll call teams in the “B” final, who are bound from 9th-16th places. “Down” will mean C-finalists, who are between 17th-24th place. Keep in mind only the A-final in diving is fought-out.

To say that Florida dominated the men’s 400 IM is an understatement, as the Gators return 6 swimmers total with 4 up and 2 down.  UGA men also bring 6 swimmers back for Finals, with top seed Chase Kalisz leading 3 in the A-Final (up), 2 mid, and 1 down.  A few schools squeak into the mix with one swimmer returning: Auburn, Kentucky and South Carolina each with 1 mid, while LSU has 1 down.

UGA was also a dominating force on the women’s side of the 400 IM event, going 4 up, including the top seed Hali Flickinger.  But after the Bulldogs, there is quite a spread of swimmers across schools, as  Texas A&M, Tennessee and Florida each have 1 up and 1 mid, while the Vols also have 1 down.  Mizzou has a lone swimmer up, as Sharli Brady is seeded 8th in the A-Final.  Arkansas sneaked two swimmers into the C-Final (2 down).

For the men’s 100 fly both Auburn and Alabama bring back five total swimmers, with Auburn going 1 up, 2 mid and 2 down and Alabama going 1 up, 3 mid and 2 down.  Florida holds the #1 seed in Caeleb Dressel, but also has Christian-Paul Homer and Jack Blyzinskyj in the mix.

Texas A&M and UGA women lead the way in the 100 fly with 4 swimmers apiece coming back tonight, each earning 1 up, 2 mid and 1 down.  Tennessee saw 1 mid 2 downs, as Auburn saw 2 mids and 1 down.  Kentucky had 2 ups, 0 mids and 0 downs, so they must aim to get the most out of those two swimmers, Christina Bechtel and Abby Myers.  With both of these women earning All-American honors in this event, points seem likely for the two Wildcats.

Florida is once again positioned to earn major points on the men’s side in the 200 freestyle, as they have 3 up and 1 mid.  UGA has 2 up, 1 down and Auburn has three swimmers spread out as 1 up, 1 mid and 1 down.  LSU has 1 mid swimmer, as does Alabama.  South Carolina has one swimmer in the A-Final for 1 up.

2 up/2mid/1 down is the name of the game for the Georgia women in their 200 free, but Texas A&M looks strong in point potential with 6 swimmers – 2 up/2down/2 mid.  Florida and South Carolina also have swimmers in the up category, as does Auburn with its only swimmer as junior Jillian Vitarius.

Here’s a reminder of the scoring rules, and where we were after night 1, which will be followed by up/down tables (women’s 1-meter diving is NOT included):

Scoring for a 24-place meet: 32-28-27-26-25-24-23-22/20-17-16-15-14-13-12-11/9-7-6-5-4-3-2-1, and then doubled for relays.

WOMEN

1. Georgia 526.0
2. Texas A&M 442.0
3. Florida 410.0
4. LSU 321.0
5. Tennessee 311.0
6. Auburn 259.0
7. Kentucky 246.0
8. Missouri 240.0
9. South Carolina 224.0
10. Arkansas 204.0
11. Alabama 187.0
12. Vanderbilt 90.0

MEN

1. Georgia 421.0
2. Florida 391.0
3. Auburn 379.0
4. Tennessee 329.0
5. Alabama 379.0
6. Missouri 251.0
7. South Carolina 249.0
8. Texas A&M 222.0
9. LSU 189.0
10. Kentucky 169.0

Women:

Men: