2019 SEC Champs Day 1 Finals Live Recap – Relays

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 (3x) (results)
• Live results
• Live Video – SEC Network
• Championship Central

The 2019 SEC championships kick off this evening in Athens, GA, with two diving events and four relays. You can check out our women’s and men’s fan guides to get a preview of all the action this week, and refresh this page throughout the evening as we bring you live updates.

Women’s 200 Medley Relay

1. Tennessee, 1:34.26
2. Missouri, 1:35.62
3. Florida, 1:35.64

Haley Hynes put Missouri in the lead with a 23.63 leadoff, but Florida and moved ahead thanks to a 26.87 breaststroke leg by Vanessa Pearl. Meanwhile, Tennessee had gotten a 24.16 from Meghan Small and a 26.68 from Nikol Popov, putting them well into striking position at the halfway point.

Enter the Killer B’s. Madeline Banic went 22.51, the 2nd-fastest fly leg in the field, and Erika Brown dropped a 20.91 anchor leg, putting the Volunteers way ahead of everyone else, as they stopped the clock in 1:34.26. That breaks the old SEC Meet Record of 1:35.08 set by Tennessee in 2013.

Note: the American and NCAA Records on the live results are out-of-date.

Missouri ended up in 2nd, with Ann Ochitwa‘s 22.44 fly leg helping the Tigers to a 1:35.62 finish, just head of Florida, who touched in 1:35.64. Auburn and Texas A&M were right behind as well, going 1:35.73 and 1:35.86.

Auburn, Texas A&M, and Arkansas all were under the NCAA A cut as well, in each thanks in part to strong legs: Claire Fisch split 21.10 for Auburn, Raena Eldridge split 21.39 for Texas A&M, and Anna Hopkin split 21.01 for Arkansas. The Aggies also got a 26.33 breast leg from Anna Belousova.

In 4th, Auburn’s time of 1:35.73 was a new School Record, lowering the previous mark of 1:36.11 set back in 2012.

Men’s 200 Medley Relay

1. Alabama, 1:22.19
2. Tennessee, 1:22.79
3. Florida, 1:23.25

This event is something of a speciality for Alabama – they won at NCAAs in 2016, then came in 2nd in 2017, with a time that was under the existing NCAA record, before fading to 9th last year. But the ‘Bama boys got back to their winning ways tonight with a 1:22.19 victory, setting a new SEC meet record in the process.

Zane Waddell led off in an eye-popping 20.22 – not only the fastest time in the field, but one of the fastest times in history. In fact, that appears to be the 2nd-fastest 50 back ever, behind only Ryan Murphy’s 20.20 at the 2016 NCAAs. Laurent Bams followed that up with a very strong 23.08 breaststroke leg, Knox Auberbach put up a 20.59 fly split that was strong enough to hold off the surge from other teams, and Robert Howard anchored in 18.30 to give Alabama at the win.

Tennessee took 2nd in 1:22.79, and showing just how important Waddell’s leadoff was, the combined times of Tennessee’s final three legs was faster than that of Alabama’s. Matthew Garcia led off with a solid 21.11, followed by a 23.45 by Michael Houlie, then Braga Verhage dropped a sub-20 fly leg (19.94), followed by Kyle Decoursey’s 18.29 anchor.

Florida was sporting a team that looked entirely different than the squad that finished 3rd at NCAAs, but they’ve rebuilt enough already to put up a 1:23.25, taking 3rd place. Kacper Stokowski led off in 21.06, Marco Gaurente split 23.53 on breast, Maxime Rooney, better known as a freestyler, put up a very strong 20.18 fly leg, and freshman Will Davis came on strong with a 18.48 anchor leg.

Women’s 800 Free Relay

1. Texas A&M, 6:54.47
2. Tennessee, 6:55.15
3. Kentucky, 6:56.23

Meghan Small put Tennessee in the lead early with a 1:43.31 leadoff leg, with Auburn right behind, thanks to a 1:43.42 from Erin Falconer. Tennessee faded a bit as Tess Cieplucha and Stanzi Mosely went 1:44.68 and 1:46.48 on the 2nd and 3rd legs.

The Aggies meanwhile, got a 1:44.57 from Katie Portz, then a 1:43.06 from Claire Rasmus to move them into the lead, where they stayed the rest of the rest, thanks to a1:44.18 from McKenna DeBever, and a 1:42.66 anchor from Sydney Pickrem, to win in 6:54.47.

Pickrem’s anchor held off an even better swim from Erika Brown, who dropped a 1:40.68 to move up to 2nd, touching in 6:55.15.

Kentucky, meanwhile, got a 1:44.88 lead off from Ali Gayler, then fairly consisten splits from Asia Sedit (1:43.13), Riley Gaines (1:44.92), and Geena Freriks (1:43.30) to take 3rd in 6:56.23.

Those three swims represent the top three times in the nation this year. Auburn (6:57.00), Georgia (6:58.01), and Florida (7:01.32) all under the NCAA A cut as well.

Men’s 800 Free Relay

1. Florida, 6:10.50
2. Missouri, 6:11.77
3. Texas A&M, 6:16.63

Florida junior Maxime Rooney completed the comeback as the Gators won the 800 free relay for the seventh consecutive year in a time of 6:10.50, breaking the SEC Championship Record set by their team in 2018 of 6:12.06.

Mizzou senior Mikel Schreuders gave the Tigers the advantage early, leading-off in a blistering 1:31.61. Not only does that swim crush his previous best time of 1:32.92, but he also snapped the 2011 meet record held by Conor Dwyer (1:31.73).

Giovanny Lima (1:32.94) and Jack Dahlgren (1:31.70) held the Missouri lead at 2.15 seconds heading into the anchor leg, but Rooney (1:32.10) got by Kyle Leach (1:35.52) for the victory.

Joining Rooney for Florida was Trey Freeman (1:33.83), Khader Baqlah (1:32.48), and Kieran Smith (1:32.09).

Texas A&M snagged third in 6:16.63, with their top split being a 1:32.63 second leg from sophomore Mark Theall, while Tennessee (6:18.64) edged Georgia (6:18.75) for fourth. The difference maker between those two teams was Volunteer senior Joey Reilman, who led off in a new personal best of 1:32.37.

TEAM SCORES

Women

1. Florida, 165
2. Texas A&M, 162
3. Arkansas, 139
4. Georgia, 132
5. Auburn, 126
6. Tennessee, 123
7. Kentucky, 122
8. Louisiana State, 118
9. Missouri, 113
10. South Carolina, 105
11. Alabama, 97
12. Vanderbilt, 60

Men

1. Tennessee, 187
2. Texas A&M, 158
3. Missouri, 146
4. Kentucky, 142
5. Alabama, 135
6. Florida, 123
7. Auburn, 121
8. South Carolina, 117
9. Louisiana State, 115
10. Georgia, 94

James Sutherland contributed to this report.