2025 SEC Championships: Day 3 Prelim Scratches – Sims to Chomp on the 2 IM, dropping 500 Free

2025 SEC Championships

• Dates: Tuesday, February 18–Saturday, February 22
  • Prelims: 9:30 am EST/ Finals 5:30 pm EST (Tuesday-5:00 EST)
• Location: Gabrielsen Natatorium — Athens, GA
• Defending Champions: Florida women (2x); Florida men (12x)
• Live Results
• Live Video: SEC Network+
• Championship Central
• Fan Guide (Men)
• Fan Guide (Women)
• Psych Sheets
• Teams: Alabama, Arkansas (women), Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas*, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt (women)
• Live Recaps
  • Finals: Day 1 | Day 2

Day 3 Prelims Heat Sheet

With a few high-profile swimmers scratching out of the meet entirely due to roster constraints, there were not as many scratches as one might expect, but there were still a few note worthy ones.#2 seeds Bella Sims and Emma Sticklen have opted not to swim the 500 free and 50 free respectively.

Sims, the NCAA reigning champion in the 500 free, will instead take on the 200 IM as the Gator is also scratching out of the 50 free where she was 13th seed. The move, while it may seem surprising at first, isn’t that out of left field, as Sims did not swim the 500 at last year’s SECs either, instead taking on and winning the 200 IM in a time of 1:51.86. She will have a tough time to the crown this year as Texas’s Sticklen has also dropped out of an event to concentrate on the 200 IM.

In her first SEC Championships, the Longhorn will look to hold off Sims in the 200 IM as she looks to defend her top seed, scratching out of the 50 free where she was the #2 seed.

Florida’s Julian Smith, after an electric night, has opted to focus on the 200 IM instead of the 50 free, dropping out of the splash and dash, where he was the #6 seed, and instead, he plans to take the Longhorn pair of Hubert Kos and Will Modglin as he hopes to improve upon his 3rd seed in the 200 IM.

All Top-24 Scratches

• W 500 Free
  • #2 Bella Sims (FLOR) – 4:31.06
• M 500 Free
• W 200 IM
  • #7 Abigail Arens (TEX) – 1:55.08
  • #14 Erin Gemmell (TEX) – 1:57.77
  • #16 Ella Jansen (TENN) – 1:57.96
• M 200 IM
• W 50 Free
  • #2 Emma Sticklen (TEX) – 21.64
  • #13 Bella Sims (FLOR) – 22.26
  • #15 Erin Gemmell (TEX) – 22.28
  • #21 Addison Reese (FLOR) – 22.39
• M 50 Free
  • #6 Julian Smith (FLOR) – 19.00
  • #24 Reese Branzell (UGA) – 19.70