Georgia leads SEC swimming and diving on day two
AUBURN, Ala. -- The Georgia men and women take the lead the 2015 Southeastern Conference Swimming & Diving Championships after day two of the event at the James E. Martin Aquatics Center on the campus of Auburn University.
On the men's side, the Bulldogs are in first place with 421 points, while Florida holds onto second with 391.5 points. For the women, Georgia has 526 team points, and Texas A&M sits in second place with 442 points.
Florida's Mitch D'Arrigo fell just shy of setting the SEC record in the 500 freestyle, touching in wall first in a time of 4:10.77. Teammate Dan Wallace, who holds the current record (2014 - 4:10.73), took second place with a time of 4:13.67. Alabama's Anton McKee took third with a time of 4:14.98.
Georgia's Amber McDermott took first in the women's 500 freestyle with a winning time of 4:35.19. Florida's Thielmann came in second (4:36.62), while Texas A&M's Sarah Henry finished third (4:38.10).
In the men's 200 IM, Georgia's Tynan Stewart is the SEC champion in the men's 200 IM, finishing with a time of 1:42.83. Eduardo Solaeche-Gomez from Florida came in second (1:43.15), and Joe Patching of Auburn took third (1:43.16).
The Gators went 1-2-3 in the women's 200 IM, as Theresa Michalak won the event with a time of 1:56.09, Lindsey McKnight came in second with a time of 1:56.16 and Ashlee Linn took third with a time of 1:56.40.
First place in the men's 50 free went to Alabama's Kristian Gkolomeev, who posted a final time of :18.64. Second place went to Florida's Caeleb Dressel (:18.93) and third to Auburn's Kyle Darmody (19.33).
Georgia's Chantal Van Landeghem captured the SEC title in the women's 50 free, finishing the A-final in a time of 21.74. Fellow Bulldog Madeline Locus came in second (21.77), and Béryl Gastadello took third (21.85).
In the women's 1-meter springboard, Alex Bettridge of LSU set the SEC record as she claimed the top spot with a final score of 350.30. Rebecca Hamperian of Kentucky finished second with a score of 329.20, while Lauren Lamendola of South Carolina placed third with a score of 328.15.
The foursome of Gkolomeev, Alex Gray, Luke Kaliszak and Brett Walsh from Alabama won the men's 200 free relay with a time of 1:16.13. On the women's side, the quartet of Locus, Van Landeghem, Olivia Smoliga and Lauren Harrington from Georgia won the SEC title with a final time of 1:27.55.
The 2015 SEC Swimming & Diving Championships continues on Thursday, Feb. 19 at 10 a.m. CT with the preliminaries for the 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free and the men's 3-meter diving, followed by the finals of those four events starting at 6 p.m. CT. Both sessions can be viewed on SEC Network+.
2015 SEC Swimming & Diving Championships - Day Two (Feb. 18, 2015 - Auburn, Ala.)
Wednesday's Final Results:
Men's Team Results (through 7 events): 1. Georgia 421; 2. Florida 391.5; 3. Auburn 379; 4. Tennessee 329.5; 5. Alabama 311; 6. Missouri 251; 7. South Carolina 249; 8. Texas A&M 222; 9. LSU 189; 10. Kentucky 169
Women's Team Results (through 8 events): 1. Georgia 526; 2. Texas A&M 442; 3. Florida 410; 4. LSU 321; 5. Tennessee 311; 6. Auburn 259; 7. Kentucky 246; 8. Missouri 240; 9. South Carolina 224; 10. Arkansas 204; 11. Alabama 187; 12. Vanderbilt 90
Men's 500 Free - 1.Mitch D'Arrigo, UF 4:10.77; 2. Dan Wallace, UF 4:13.67; 3. Anton McKee, UA 4:14.98; 4. Akaram Mahmoud, SC 4:15.11; 5. Kevin Litherland, UG 4:16.36; 6. Sam McHugh, UT 4:17.05; 7. Arthur Frayler, UF 4:17.48; 8. Tom Peribonio, SC 4:17.58
Women's 500 Free - 1. Amber McDermott, UG 4:35.19; 2. Jessica Thielmann, UF 4:36.62; 3. Sarah Henry, AM 4:38.10; 4. Brittany McLean, UG 4:41.62; 5. Madeline Tegner, UT 4:42.73; 6. Rachel Zilinskas, UG 4:42.84; 7. Taylor Katz, UF 4:43.15; 8. Sarah Gibson, AM 4:43.99
Men's 200 IM - 1. Tynan Stewart, UG 1:42.83; 2. Eduardo Solaeche-Gomez, UF 1:43.15; 3. Joe Patching, AU 1:43.16; 4. Chase Kalisz, UG 1:43.44; 5. Tristan Slater, UT 1:43.50; 6. Nicolas Fink, UG 1:43.60; 7. Mark Szaranek, UF 1:43.61; 8. Alexander Hancock, AU 1:46.22
Women's 200 IM - 1.Theresa Michalak, UF 1:56.09; 2. Lindsey McKnight, UF 1:56.16; 3. Ashlee Linn, UF 1:56.40; 4. Bethany Galat, AM 1:56.53; 5. Emily Cameron, UG 1:57.04; 6. Amanda Carner, UT 1:57.65; 7. Meaghan Raab, UG 1:57.91; 8. Kristin Malone, AM 1:59.24
Men's 50 Free - 1. Kristian Gkolomeev, UA 18.64; 2. Caeleb Dressel, UF 18.93; 3. Kyle Darmody, AU 19.33; 4. Michael Trice, UG 19.39; 5. Cory Bolleter, AM 19.55; 6. Troy Tillman, UT 19.58; 7. Michael Duderstadt, AU 19.70; Alex Gray, UA 19.81
Women's 50 Free - 1. Chantal Van Landeghem, UG 21.74; 2. Madeline Locus, UG 21.77; 3. Béryl Gastadello, AM 21.85; 4. Faith Johnson, UT 22.00; 5. Allyx Purcell, AU 22.02; 6. Natalie Hinds, UF 22.13; 7. Harper Bruens, UT 22.16; 8. Sammie Bosma, AM 22.36
Women's 1-Meter Diving - 1. Alex Bettridge, LS 350.30; 2. Rebecca Hamperian, UK 329.20; 3. Lauren Lamendola, SC 328.15; 4. Olivia Ball, UG 320.30; 5. Madison Hudkins, AM 319.00; 6. Patty Kranz, SC 318.75; 7. Christa Cabot, UK 312.10; 8. Cassie Weil, LS 311.65
Men's 200 Free Relay - 1. Alabama (Gkolomeev, Gray, Kaliszak, Walsh) 1:16.13; 2. Auburn (Molacek, Duderstadt, Mendes, Darmody) 1:16.17; 3. Florida (Main, Dressel, Werner, Curby) 1:17.60; 4. Tennessee (Romany, Aberg Ledjstrom, Thulin, Tillman) 1:17.76; 5. Georgia (Trice, Koski, Dale, Fink) 1:17.96; Missouri (Margritier, Chadwick, Tierney, Groters) 1:18.50; 7. LSU (Mescolote, Gonzalez, McCaffrey, Linge) 1:18.84; 8. Texas A&M (Bolleter, Gonzales, Shaw, Ayar) 1:18.86; 9. South Carolina (Covert, Boland, Wich-Glasen, Clothier) 1:20.68; 10. Kentucky (Dillon, Christian, Zandona, Roman) 1:20.98
Women's 200 Free Relay - 1.Georgia (Locus, Van Landeghem, Smoliga, Harrington) 1:27.55; Auburn (Fonteno, Purcell, Ellzey, Hull) 1:28.05; 3. Tennessee (Johnson, Bruens, Lubawy, Thompson) 1:28.92; 4. Texas A&M (Galat, Gastadello, Brandt, Bosma) 1:29.01; 5. Alabama (Scott, Vourna, Tomley, Panian) 1:29.03; 6. Florida (Hinds, McKnight, Linn, Michalak) 1:29.43; 7. Arkansas (White, Drolc, Monroe, Mayfield); 8. Missouri (Hayden, Barbiea, Stevens, Patterson) 1:30.05; 9. LSU (Carter, Troskot, Zimmer, Oquist) 1:30.17; 10. Kentucky (Ruffing, Myers, Wilson, Contino) 1:32.09; 11. South Carolina (Elliott, Brown, Branaman, Carlson) 1:33.16; 12. Vanderbilt (Martin, Thomas, Cha, Moran) 1:33.19
Quotes Ty Stewart (Georgia), men's 200-yard IM "I feel on top of the world. I'm so glad I could contribute to our team. I finally got there. I've been waiting for a swim like this for 2½ years and it feels so good.
Chantal Van Landeghem (Georgia), women's 50-yard free "It feels really great. I wanted to come out and race hard. The atmosphere is awesome, so I'm really happy. I'm also so proud of Maddie (Locus, who came in second). I was as happy for her as I was for myself because I know how hard she's trained."
Amber McDermott (Georgia), women's 500-yard free "I'm really happy, especially since I also won it my freshman year. It's nice to start off with a bang and end with a bang. The key was to swim my own race, take it out as fast as I could and try to hold on."
Mitch D'Arrigo (Florida), men's 500-yard free "I still haven't realized it yet. I was very nervous coming into the race this year after what happened last year but I'm obviously really excited."
Theresa Michalak (Florida), 200 IM "I'm so happy that all three of us did it. It's just great considering that all three of us swim together all the time and we went through so many things as a group. I think my time was pretty good because I won, but I'm just so happy that all three of us did so well."
Olivia Smoliga (Georgia), 200-yard free relay "It feels awesome. We really closed the day with a bang. It's not easy to come back from an individual event to the relay, but we're used to it and we showed up tonight. I'm proud of the way our team performed tonight. We have a lot of depth and we really did well as a team."
Kristian Gkolomeev (Alabama), 50-yard free "It was a really good race, I felt really good. It was a close race in the morning, so I was pumped up for tonight and put up a really good time. I was so excited. I'm really glad to get that win, it (last year's SEC 50 freestyle final) is the only 50 race I've lost since coming to Alabama last January. I'm so happy to get that one back."
Brett Walsh (Alabama), 200-yard freestyle relay "There really aren't any words to describe it. It's the first time we've won a relay (since 1994) and my team put me in a great position to bring it home. I didn't really care about the time, I just wanted to out touch the guy next to me."
Alex Bettridge (LSU), 1-meter diving "It's still kind of new to me and I wasn't expecting it. I had no idea where I was on the leaderboard because I was zoned in. Going into my final job I was just smiling because everyone was cheering so loud. I think winning tonight gives our group momentum going forward. One of our goals is to go 1-2-3 on platform. After tonight, I think it's possible and I'm looking forward to the rest of the week."
Jack Bauerle (Georgia), head coach "Our men had a heck of a night after not having a heck of a morning. But we came back and turned it around. It was a great night, a spectacular night. I'm proud of the way we competed tonight. We really swam tough."
"Our ladies are really utilizing our depth. We're getting points up and down the lineup, and that's such a key in this meet. We want to go out and perform to our best each time we compete. If we can do that, everything takes care of itself. I'm really pleased with our performance today."