2026 SEC Championships: Day Four Ups/Mids/Downs, Florida Men and Women Have Strong Prelims

2026 SEC Championships

• Dates: Monday, February 16–Saturday, February 21
• Location: Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center, Knoxville, TN
• Defending Champions: Texas (1x)
• Live Results
• Live Video: SEC Network+
• Psych Sheet (UPDATED)
• Schedule of Events
• Championship Central
• Teams: Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt (women only), Arkansas (women only)
• Live Recaps
  • Prelims: Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4
  • Finals: Day 1 Distance | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3

Day four prelims of the SEC Championships saw the Florida Gators have their strongest prelims session of the meet as the women are now projected to jump Tennessee in the overall rankings and the men significantly closed the gap with Texas.

For those unfamiliar with swimming terminology, the concept of “Ups” and “Downs” is a good way to track which teams performed best at prelims. In prelims, swimmers qualify for one of three finals heats: the top 8 finishers make the A final, places 9 through 16 the B final and places 17 through 24 the C final. In finals, swimmers are locked into their respective final, meaning a swimmer in the B heat (spots 9-16) can only place as high as 9th or as low as 16th, even if they put up the fastest or slowest time of any heat in the final.

With that in mind, we’ll be tracking “Ups,” “Mids” and “Downs” after each prelims session. “Up” refers to swimmers and divers in the A final, “Mid” to B finalists, and “Down” to C finalists.

Scores After Day Three

Women’s Ups/Mids/Downs

The Texas women are in a good spot after day four, and they earned the most ‘A’ finals swims of the meet with seven. That number is slightly deceiving, however, as they picked up one ‘A’ finalist in the 200 breast and 50 free, but they put five swimmers in the 500 free ‘A’ final.

Jillian Cox is seeded 4th (4:38.49), Nikolett Padar is seeded 5th (4:39.03), Lillie Nesty is 6th (4:39.39), Kate Hurst is 7th (4:40.21), and Erin Gemmell rounded out the final in 8th (4:40.87).

The Florida women also had a strong prelims session, picking up five ‘A’ finalists with four in the 200 breast and one in the 500 free. They are projected to score 205.5 points, which is 100 more points than Tennessee’s projected total of 101. This difference has them finishing the day in 2nd place by just one point over the Volunteers.

Auburn and South Carolina are sitting tied for 4th coming into the session and neither team pulled far ahead during prelims and Auburn is projected to finish the day just three points ahead of South Carolina.

Women’s Projected Points Per Event

Women’s Projected Relay Totals

Women’s Projected Point Totals

Men’s Ups/Mids/Downs

Friday morning was huge for the Florida men, who picked up seven ‘A’ finalists with two in the 50 free (including top seed Josh Liendo), three in the 500 free (including top seed Ahmed Jaouadi), and two in the men’s platform.

The score projection shows them closing the gap slightly on Texas, with the Longhorn men looking at finishing the day just 50 points ahead after they qualified 5 swimmers for the ‘A’ final.

The Tennessee men are solidly in 3rd and Georgia and Auburn are battling for 4th overall. Currently Georgia leads, and after qualifying two swimmers to ‘A’ finals they are looking to maintain that position tonight, though Auburn is closing the gap.

Men’s Projected Points Per Event

Men’s Projected Relay Totals

Men’s Projected Point Totals