Tennessee’s Erika Brown Continues Meteoric Rise With 20.81 Relay Split

2018 Men’s & Women’s SEC Championships

• Wednesday, February 14 – Sunday, February 18
• Rec Center Natatorium, Texas A&M, College Station, TX (Central Time Zone)
• 25y course, prelims/finals, invitational format
• Live results
• Live Video – SEC Network
• Championship Central
• Psych Sheet

While Caeleb Dressel was turning heads with a 17.92 anchor on the men’s 200 medley relay to open the 2018 SEC Championships, Tennessee’s Erika Brown had arguably a more historically-significant swim to anchor the Volunteers’ winning women’s relay.

Brown split 20.81 to finish Tennesssee’s medley relay and erase a 7-tenths of a second deficit to Texas A&M. As far as we can tell, that’s the 3rd-fastest relay split in history by a woman.

The sophomore has been building herself into a household name all season. She swam a 21.50 at the Tennessee Invitational in November that ranks her 3rd in the NCAA this season and gives her the top seed for Thursday’s individual event. She also ranks 5th nationally in the 100 free (47.54) and 1st nationally in the 100 fly (50.33). As a freshman, she was outside of the top 50 nationally in the 50 with a season-best of 22.33 and only swam the 100 fly only twice – with a season-best of 55.12.

Fastest 50 yard free relay splits, Women:

1. Simone Manuel, Stanford – 20.78, 2017
2. Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace, Auburn – 20.80, 2012
3. Erika Brown, Tennessee – 20.81, 2018
4. Kelsi Worrell, Louisville – 20.84, 2016