UK’s Anna Havens Rice Goes From 2:00 To 1:55 In 200 Fly To Win SEC ‘B’ Final

2022 SEC SWIMMING & DIVING 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
• Psych Sheets
• 2021 SEC Scoring Breakdown
• Day 4 Prelims
• Day 4 Finals Heat Sheets

Call her this year’s Parker Herren.

Kentucky’s Anna Havens Rice was primarily a breaststroker in her freshman year with the Wildcats, but has taken on the 200 fly in her sophomore season and it all paid dividends on Friday night at SECs.

Rice came into the season with a 200 fly best time of 2:00.59, set in February 2019 while she was still in high school, and swam the race a handful of times in her freshman year, nearing that PB with a 2:00.66 in a dual meet in January 2021.

She knocked her personal best down to 1:58.81 at the Ohio State Invitational in November, and then snuck under that last month in a dual against Louisville in 1:58.79.

Then after coming in seeded 22nd at SECs, Rice lowered her PB down to 1:57.51 to qualify for the ‘B’ final in 10th. She didn’t stop there, overtaking teammate Izzy Gati on the last 50 to win the 200 fly consolation final in 1:55.86, marking a near five-second drop compared to where she was at the start of the season.

The comparison to Herren comes from the massive improvement Herren, another Kentucky swimmer, showed last season to make the SEC ‘A’ final in the 100 back.

In her first SEC Championships last season, Rice swam the 100 breast (20th), 200 breast (17th) and 400 IM (11th), going on to earn a second swim at NCAAs in the 400 IM (placing 16th).

In addition to her standout 200 fly swim this year, Rice also took 20th in the 200 IM and 18th in the 400 IM.