The big news on the morning of day 3 at the 2013 SEC Championships was the event choice by Florida’s Sebastien Rousseau. He opted for a swim in the 200 free on the third day of this meet rather than the 400 IM, which is not totally intuitive as Rousseau ranked second in the 200 IM coming into the meet. That ended up being a stroke-of-coaching-strategy-genius by Gregg Troy though, something that’s never as important as it is in a 24-place scored meet. The Gators had four swimmers in the top 8 of that 400 IM and Auburn just 1, meaning that Rousseau’s presence would have been almost superfluous upon team scoring. Instead, he swam a race where he had a chance to do some serious damage to Auburn’s scoring hopes in the 200 free.
Men’s 400 IM Prelims
So on the 400 IM went, without maybe the favorite in the race. That left Georgia freshman Chase Kalisz, the champion on Wednesday in the 200 IM, as a favorite and a top seed coming out of prelims in 3:41.96. He and Florida’s Connor Signorin were racing in the same heat, and so perhaps they were caught in a bit of a battle at the end as they rolled to the top two seeds in 3:41.96 and 3:42.69, respectively. They both closed fairly hard relative to the rest of the field, so perhaps watch for the rest of the field to tighten on them in finals.
That includes Dan Wallace, the runner-up in this event in 2012, who was a 3:42.96 for the third seed and another Georgia freshman Ty Stewart in 4th in 3:44.59. Going into this final, we’ve got 4 Gators, 3 Bulldogs, and a lone Auburn Tiger: Jordan Jones in 3:46.24 for 7th. Anything Jones can do to skip ahead of a few of those Florida swimmers in finals will loom big in team scoring.
Women’s 400 IM Prelims
This final is shaping up to be everything we’d hoped it would, with the two Olympians Elizabeth Beisel and Cammile Adams taking the top two seeds in 4:04.78 and 4:06.23, respectively. Both have been much faster already this year, as has the 4th-seed Sarah Henry, who was a 4:07.90.
Remember that last year, when Beisel went on to break the American Record in this meet with a 3:58, she was about a second faster than this in prelims. That means we should expect her to at least push toward breaking the four-minute barrier, especially if the men give some momentum with a good performance the race before.
Georgia’s Annie Zhu put up a best time of 4:07.43 for the 3rd seed, filling in magnificently the hole left when Jana Mangimelli left the program mid-season. The Bulldogs ended up with 4 in this A-Final.
Men’s 100 Fly Prelims
Nobody really separated themselves from the pack in this men’s 100 fly, with all 8 swimmers going under 47 seconds for the A-Final. That includes 46.4’s from Florida’s Marcin Cieslak and Georgia’s Doug Reynolds, who is the defending champion in the event. Keep in mind that though Cieslak was an All-American in this race last year, he didn’t swim it at SEC’s in 2012, instead opting for the 200 free.
Behind those two was a 46.67 from Tennessee’s Sam Rairden out of an early heat, and Texas A&M’s Hendrik Lindau in 46.76. After them came a three-way tie for 6th between Florida’s Bradley DeBorde, Auburn mid-season addition Arthur Mendes, and Georgia freshman Matt Ellis.
Mendes, who was just better than his teammate Marcelo Chierighini (47.04) probably cemented his spot on Auburn’s 400 medley relay with that swim. Whereas Chierighini was given the job on the shorter 200 medley, now Brett Hawke can feel comfortable turning the reigns for the longer event over to Mendes and letting Chierighini anchor with one of the best 100 freestyles in the country.
Women’s 100 Fly Prelims
Natalie Hinds was up-and-less-up through the first two days of this meet. Her relay splits were incredible, while her individual 50 free was very good, but not as good as she had been on relays. On day 2, it looks like she’s going for all-up, as she took the top seed in the 100 fly in 51.78. That’s a personal best for her by almost exactly a second. Auburn’s Olivia Scott, the national runner-up last year, will have the 2nd seed in 52.16, with Caroline McElhany from A&M and Kelsey Floyd from Tennessee just behind also in 52-lows.
Georgia’s Lauren Harrington, as their lone elite butterflier, did exactly what the Bulldogs needed from her and swam a best time into a 5th seed in 52.39.
Men’s 200 Free Prelims
Five 1:34’s topped this 200 free prelims, led by Florida freshman Pawel Werner in 1:34.23 and seconded by Auburn’s Zane Grothe in 1:34.31. We’ll have to wait and find out if the Gators’ decision to put Rousseau in this 200 free pays off or not, as with such a deep field there’s a risk of him sliding well down the rankings. Auburn, on the other hand, has a good opportunity with two in this final, including James Disney-May 6th in 1:35.79.
BJ Hornikel from Alabama took the 3rd seed in the 200 free in 1:34.67: a much better swim than he had in the 800 free relay on Tuesday.
The A&M men, whose middle-distance group has really improved the last few years to match their sprint group, have four swimmers in the top part of the B-Final.
Women’s 200 Free Prelims
It will come as no surprise to anybody that Georgia, who broke the American and NCAA Records in the 800 free relay earlier in this meet, got 5 swimmers into the A-Final of this individual 200 free. Among them, though, only Jordan Mattern really looked as good as she did in that relay for the 3rd seed in 1:45.03. Shannon Vreeland sits 2nd in 1:44.28, with Megan Romano, Allison Schmitt, and Kelsey Gaid going 6-7-8.
That leaves Tennessee’s Lindsay Gendron, who was also very fast in the relay, with a 1:44.17 for the top seed. Expect Georgia to make a big leap headed into finals, just as they did on Wednesday though, to push the winning times in this race down into the 1:43 or possibly even 1:42 range.
Florida (Sinead Russell) and Texas A&M (Lili Ibanez) each put a swimmer in the A-Final as well, which is good news for two teams that don’t have a lot of depth in this event in terms of swimmers who race it individually.
Live meet results available here.
PDF of day 2 prelims available here.
Georgia actually has 4 girls in the 400 IM final as well, huge points!
Georgia put 8 swimmers in the A final of women’s 200 free? How about 5, still an incredible feat.