2022 SEC Championships: Day 1 Prelim Recap

2022  SEC CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Tuesday, February 15 – Saturday, February 19, 2022
• Jones Aquatics Center, Knoxville, Tenn. (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Men- Florida (9x) Women- Kentucky (1x)
• Live Results
• Live Video (Watch ESPN)
• Championship Central
• Pre-Scratch Psych Sheets
• 2021 SEC Scoring Breakdown
• Teams: Georgia, Texas A&M, Florida, Tennessee, LSU, Auburn, Kentucky, Missouri, Alabama, Arkansas, South Carolina, Vanderbilt

The first major college conference meet of the year kicked off this morning in Knoxville, TN, with the SEC holding a handful of time trials and diving prelims this morning. It is not uncommon for teams to have a handful of swimmers compete in time trials before the meet, and time trials were held in the women’s 200 medley relay, 200 IM and 100 fly, along with the men’s 100 and 200 back.

The women’s 1 meter and men’s 3 meter prelims are also being held this morning.

This post will be updated as prelim diving results are finalized.

Time Trial Results

The highlight of the time trial session came from the Auburn men’s backstroke group, which put up a pair of likely NCAA invite times. In the 100 back, junior Aidan Stoffle posted a 45.94 as the heat’s lone competitor. That swim is a new lifetime best by nearly a second. His classmate Lleyton Smith then time trialed the 200 back, blasting a new lifetime best of 1:40.29. Stoffle’s 100 back currently sits 17th in the NCAA, just .01 behind his freshman brother Nathan, while Smith’s swim moves him all the way up t0 5th nationally before the conference meets. Both swims would have also qualified for the A final of last year’s SEC Championships.

The Florida women time trialed the 200 medley relay, with the quartet of Talia Bates, Tylor Mathieu, Olivia Peoples and Ekaterina Nikonova stopping the clock in 1:38.48. That swim is off of the NCAA B Standard of 1:37.07 and a half second off of Florida’s seed time for tonight’s final. The Florida women are continuing to look for answers on the breaststroke leg after the medical retirement of Vanessa Pearl and last year’s medley relay breaststroker Cecilia Porter was not entered in this year’s meet. Mathieu’s breaststroke split this morning of 27.97 was over a full second slower than Porter’s split on last year’s relay at this meet.

Auburn senior Devan Sweeney swam the 200 IM in 2:01.49, off of her season best of 2:00.37, while her junior teammate Hannah Mattson time trialed the 100 fly in 53.85. That swim chops over a half second off of Mattson’s lifetime best of 54.51 from November’s Georgia Tech Invite.

Women’s 1 Meter Diving

Top 8 finishers:

1. Brooke Schultz (SCAR): 331.35
2. Sophie Verzyl (SCAR): 315.60
3. Kyndal Knight (UKY): 288.85
4. Aimee Wilson (TAMU): 287.30
5. Montserrat Lavenant (LSU): 286.35
6. Chiara Pellacani (LSU): 285.80
7. Grace Cable (TENN): 279.50
8. Meghan Wenzel (UGA): 274.50

The South Carolina Gamecocks put up a pair of dominant performances to take the top two spots after prelims. Schultz, a graduate transfer from Arkansas who was has twice been the SEC diver of the year, had the field’s top score by over 15 points. Verzyl, her freshman teammate and a homegrown product of Columbia, SC, finished second in 315.60.

The two Gamecocks are well separated from the field after the prelims, but spots 3-8 were extremely tight with only 14 points between 3rd and 8th. Kentucky senior Kyndal Knight, A&M senior Aimee Wilson, Tennessee senior Grace Cable and Georgia sophomore Meghan Wenzel are all their team’s lone representative in tonight’s A final.

The LSU Tigers put a pair in the A final, with sophomore Montserrat Lavenant and freshman Chiara Pellacini finishing 5th and 6th, respectively.

Men’s 3 Meter Diving

Top 8 finishers:

1. Juan Hernandez (LSU): 433.10
2. Kurtis Mathews (TAMU): 407.35
3. Bryden Hattie (TENN): 401.85
4. Victor Povzner (TAMU): 400.05
5. Conner Pruitt (AUB): 381.55
6. Matthew Wade (TENN): 375.05
7. Adrian Abadia Garcia (LSU): 373.15
8. Rodrigo Romero (UKY): 352.35

As expected, LSU senior Juan Hernandez qualified first out of the prelims with a 433.10, over 25 points clear of the field. Hernandez has long been one of the top divers in the country, having won 5 SEC titles in addition to earning 9 All American honors in his career.  Joining him in the A final will be his freshman teammate Adrian Adabia Garcia, who qualified 7th.

Texas A&M and Tennessee also qualified two divers into the A final. The Aggies were led by senior Kurtis Mathews, who qualified in second behind Hernandez. Sophomore teammate Victor Povzner will join Mathews in the A final after qualifying fourth with a score of 400.05, giving the Aggies of the four divers to break the 400 point barrier in the prelims.

The Tennessee Volunteers will have both sophomore Bryden Hattie and senior Matthew Wade competing in tonight’s final, with Hattie qualifying third and Wade sitting in to the 6th spot.

Auburn will be represented in the final by senior Conner Pruitt, while Kentucky junior Rodrigo Romero slipped into the A final by just .1 point ahead of his teammate Danny Zhang, who finished 9th.