Day 3 of the SEC Swimming & Diving Championships is upon us! If you are in College Station, there are still tickets available for the preliminary sessions so come out and cheer on your Aggies. I’ll warn you, it’s pretty warm in here so wear your shorts (and maroon). The women are currently in 2nd place behind Georgia, the men in 5th behind Auburn, Florida, Georgia and Tennessee. We had a great night of finals last night, with Sarah Henry winning the 500 freestyle, beating out US Olympic silver medalist Allison Schmitt and giving the Aggies our first ever win in the SEC. Whoop!

Here is the order of events for this morning’s prelim session:

Men’s 400 IM
Women’s 400 IM: this should be the most exciting race of the morning, Aggies Cammille Adams and Sarah Henry are seeded 2nd and 3rd respectively behind Olympic silver medalist in the event, Elizabeth Beisel from Florida
Men’s 100 Butterfly
Women’s 100 Butterfly
Men’s 200 Freestyle
Women’s 200 Freestyle

Prelims Recap

Men’s 400 IM

In the men’s 400, it took a 3:46.86 to qualify for the “A” final, which is almost a full second faster than the Texas A&M school record in the event. That record is held by Junior Simon Frank, who posted a 3:48.92 to qualify 12th: he will be swimming in the “B” final this evening. Sophomore Hayden Duplechain was 20th and will bring us some points from the “C” final this evening. Surprisingly, former school record holder Omar Enriquez was 8th in the final heat in 3:56.55, and he ended up outside of the “C” final in 28th place. Enriquez’s fly looked good, but he struggled after the backstroke.

Women’s 400 IM

This will be the race to watch tonight, and as expected, Olympic silver medalist Elizabeth Beisel posted the fastest time of the morning: 4:04.78. Texas A&M’s school record holder in the event, Cammile Adams, is seeded second with a 4:06.23. Tonight she will be joined by Aggie teammate and our first SEC champion Sarah Henry, who qualified 4th with a 4:07.90. I have a feeling we might see a new Texas A&M school record tonight (4:01.56), and maybe our first ever sub-four minute 400 IM in Aggie history. The 400-IM is so fun to watch because the lead can change so many times. Here is what to expect from Beisel, Adams, and Henry:

Beisel is one of the best 400-IMers in the world, and doesn’t really have a weak stroke; plus, she is a tough racer. Her best stroke is backstroke, so expect her to be ahead at the 200-yard mark.

Adams qualified for the 2012 Olympics in the 200 butterfly. If she wants to win this tonight she needs to be ahead after the butterfly.

Henry doesn’t seem to have a weak stroke either, but she is a very strong freestyler and a tough racer, as we saw last night in the 500. Henry is also an awesome breaststroker, she just doesn’t really race much breaststroke because she is so versatile and we have a lot of other breaststrokers on the Aggie squad (Larson, McGregor). Henry does not need to be ahead at the 200-yard mark, but if she is, I doubt anyone will catch her.

Freshman Romy Ledecky qualified 21st and will swim in the “C” final this evening. On the downside, Georgia has four girls in the top 8, so even if Sarah and Cammile go 1 and 2, Georgia is going to pick up a lot of points in the 400 IM.

Men’s 100 Butterfly

The top qualifier in this event is Florida’s Marcin Cieslak (46.44), who was disqualified last night in the 200-IM (after coming in as the defending SEC Champion) so he no doubt will have something to prove tonight. Not too far out of first place is Texas A&M’s Henrik Lindau, who qualified 4th in 46.76. There is only half a second between the 1st place and 8th place qualifiers going into tonight’s final, so really, it could be anyone’s race and probably the Aggies’ best chance so far to bring home an SEC title on the men’s side. Kyle Troskot was 23rd with a 48.26 and will be swimming in the “C” final this evening.

Women’s 100 Butterfly

Caroline McElhany continued her great swimming from yesterday and qualified 3rd with a time of 52.23; she will be joined in the “A” final by teammate Paige Miller, who qualified 7th in 52.65. The top seed went to Freshman Natalie Hinds from Florida in 51.78. McElhany is only a few tenths off Hinds and has much more collegiate experience, which will be beneficial tonight! Senior backstroker Tess Simpson was 9th, and although it would have been great to have another Aggie in the “A” final, this is her third best event of the week and was still almost four tenths out from 8th place. Sophomore Sammie Bosma was 13th in 53.67 and will also swim in the “B” final this evening.

Men’s 200 Freestyle

This race was a heartbreaker for me. Senior John Wagner posted a huge best time (1:46.08) in heat 5, the last of the non-circle seeded heats, and ended up in 9th place. He was only a freshman when I was a senior, so on a personal level, it was awesome to see how much he has improved, and it would’ve been great for him to make the “A” final after how hard he has worked. Nonetheless, he should be very excited about that time. In total we will have 4 Aggies in the “B” final tonight: John Wagner is 9th, Luke Shaw is 11th, Paul-Marc Schweitzer is 12th and John Dalton is 13th. Luck was on our side with the “C” final: freshman Mateo Muzek sneaked in with a 24th place finish in prelims.

Women’s 200 Freestyle

Georgia really cleaned up this morning in the 200 freestyle and that is going to hurt us in our quest to take the lead from them. Granted, this was not a surprise: their deepest event is the 200 freestyle, considering they have the Olympic gold medalist and NCAA record holder… and that’s two different swimmers. After tonight they will probably be further ahead of us regardless of how well we swim simply because of the depth they have in this evening’s session. As long as we can still stay within reach tonight, we will be able to do some damage tomorrow. It took a 1:45.81 to even qualify for the A final and Georgia has 5 of the 8 spots. One Aggie qualified for the “A”: Lili Ibanez is 5th in 1:45.07. Senior Maureen McLaine was 10th in 1:46.23, and Meredith Oliver snuck into 16th spot in 1:47.03. Kelli Benjamin was 19th and will swim in the “C” final tonight.

Finals begin at 6:00 pm.

Georgia's depth in women's 200 free is incredible. They may score over 100 pts. in that event. Reminds me a bit of Texas' men when they had Berens, Walters, Klueh, etc.

Ledecky?

Spicewood... I thought the same thing except with tu in circa 2000 when they won the 800 at NCAA's something like 4 or 5 years in a row with Dusing, Rauch, etc. Those 200 freestylers were the guys that got big points while Hensen, Crocker, and Peirsol were breaking individual records.

... almost forgot, thanks a ton for the great reports Julia. Keep them coming!!!

[This message has been edited by H2OPoloAg02 (edited 2/21/2013 5:00p).]

Julia, thanks for the great reports!!!!!!

[This message has been edited by BigJim49 AustinNowDallas (edited 2/21/2013 5:53p).]

My bad! Romy LANDECK, not Ladecky! Sorry all.



[This message has been edited by Julia Wilkinson-Minks (edited 2/21/2013 6:17p).]

SEC swimming is no joke! Thanks for the updates!

Here is Thursday Night finals recap UP to the diving:

Men’s 400 IM

In the “C” final of the 400 IM, Aggie Sophomore Hayden Duplechain was third in a time of 3:49.55, over two seconds faster than his time this morning. In the “B” final, Simon Frank had a great swim, setting a new Texas A&M school record of 3:46.70 and placing 3rd in the “B” final. In the “A”, Georgia Freshman Chase Kalisz returned after winning the 200 IM last night to dominate the second half of the 400 IM in a time of 3:39.82. Overall a great start for the Texas A&M men!

Women’s 400 IM

Romy Landeck was 7th in the “C” final in 4:19.03 and ended up 23rd overall. She was fairly far back after the backstroke and made up a lot of ground with her breaststroke leg, but it wasn’t quite enough to get ahead of the pack. Nevertheless, faster than her morning time and a great swim for a freshman at her first SEC Conference meet. In the “A” final, Olympic silver medalist Elizabeth Beisel broke away from Cammile Adams after the butterfly leg and never looked back. Sarah Henry managed to come back on Georgia’s Annie Zhu for 3rd place with an incredibly strong back half, but it wasn’t enough to catch the top two. Beisel was the only swimmer under 4 minutes, at 3:59, followed by Adams in and Henry in. I can’t wait to see what these ladies will do when they are rested!

Men’s 100 Butterfly

Kyle Troskot bettered his morning performance with a 48.11 for 5th place in the “C” final. Henrik Lindau was out very fast and was winning the “A” final at the halfway mark, but a long glide into his third turn and finish forced him to settle for 4th place in 46.50. Remember when Phelps lost the 200 fly on the finish this past summer in London? That is kind of what happened tonight for Henrik, and it something that can happen to even the most experienced racer (like Phelps). Sometimes you nail the turn, sometimes you are a little too far or a little too close. The SEC title went to Marcin Cieslak of Florida in 46.01.

Women’s 100 Butterfly

Caroline McElhany continued her 3rd place streak from last night, and posted the 3rd fastest time in the nation this year (51.86), which is also an NCAA “A” qualifying cut. She nailed all three of her turns and almost ran down the two girls ahead of her, but ran out of room and didn’t have the best touch. So, it was an awesome swim, but even better news is that she has places where she can improve before NCAA’s in a few weeks. Paige Miller was 5th in 52.13, and in the “B” final Tess Simpson was 12th in 53.55 and Sammie Bosma was 14th in 54.45.

Here's the update after diving:

Men’s 200 Freestyle

After feeling disappointed with his morning swim, senior John Dalton arrived at the pool with something to prove. He took a commanding lead of the “B” final from the very beginning and no one could catch him. He won the race (finishing 9th) in 1:35.24, over a second faster than his morning swim. Paul-Marc Schweitzer was 11th in 1:36.05 and his teammate John Wagner was 13th in 1:36.71. In the “C” final, Mateo Muzek moved up one place from this morning and finished 23rd in 1:37.98.

Women’s 200 Freestyle

In the “A” final of the 200 freestyle was absolutely stacked, and the Olympic gold medalist in the 200 freestyle, Allison Schmitt, was 3rd in 1:43.46. The win went to Tennessee’s Lindsay Gendron in 1:43.22, followed by NCAA and American record holder Meagan Romano in 1:43.38. Lili Ibanez from Texas A&M was 6th in 1:44.65, just a second off my school record of 1:43.64, something she has had her eyes on for a long time. Hopefully with a bit more rest for NCAA’s, she will be able to get into the 1:43 range and break that record! In the “B” final Maureen McLaine (1:46.56) and Meredith Oliver (1:47.03) were 12th and 13th respectively. It was a very close race: the winner was Florida’s Jamie Bohunicky in 1:46.09. Kelli Benjamin got out-touched in the “C” final and was 18th in 1:46.91 behind Tennessee’s Harper Bruens’ 1:46.87.

On the men’s side, we have passed Tennessee and are now sitting in fourth place. The women lost some ground on Georgia because of their depth, and Florida because they just kept winning tonight! But don’t worry, tomorrow we bust out our not-so-secret weapons: our Olympians actually swimming their premier events! Cammile Adams has the 200 butterfly and Breeja Larson has her 100 breaststroke. It’s going to be a good day!

Here are the new standings after the third day of the SEC Swimming and Diving Championships:

Men
1. Florida 748
2. Auburn 630.5
3. Georgia 549
4. Texas A&M 426.5
5. Tennessee 421
6. LSU 353.5
7. Missouri 344
8. South Carolina 314.5
9. Alabama 270
10. Kentucky 247

Women
1. Georgia 790
2. Florida 676
3. Texas A&M 659
4. Tennessee 557
5. Auburn 353
6. Missouri 297
7. LSU 297
8. Arkansas 280
9. Kentucky 220
10. Alabama 176
11. South Carolina 148
12. Vanderbilt 93

Come on Ags!