Kentucky Wins First-Ever SEC Championship Title

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SEC – Swimming and diving women + diving men

  • Wednesday February 17 – Saturday February 20, 2021
  • W Swimming: Gabrielson Natatorium – Athens, GA (East Zone)
  • W&M Diving: Mizzou Aqutics Center – Columbia, MO (central time zone)
  • Defending champion: Tennessee (1x) (2020 Results)
  • Live results
  • Live Video – SEC Network
  • Central Championship
  • Psychological sheets

The University of Kentucky won their first-ever SEC Championship title after 40 years of women’s swimming at the SEC Conference. Tonight, their victory was 149 points over the University of Georgia. Defending champions Tennessee placed 4th.

The Head Coach Lars jorgenson was not in attendance at the start of the competition on Wednesday due to a positive COVID test last week, but he arrived in time to see the team win the SEC championship title on Saturday.

And that’s a sign of the season. In 2021, the teams that emerge in the lead will be those that have best managed the challenges posed by the global coronavirus pandemic. Florida entered the competition without a star freestyler Leah Braswell, and on a final margin of 53 points, that could have been enough to tip the final result of the meeting.

But you don’t get points for who comes, rather for those who show up. And Kentucky came out big this week in Athens.

FINAL SCORES

1. Kentucky: 1124
2. Florida: 1071
3. Georgia: 999
4. Alabama: 973
5. Tennessee: 934
6. Texas A&M: 839
7. Missouri: 614.5
8. Arkansas: 595
9. Auburn: 510
10. LSU: 390.5
11. South Carolina: 276
12. Vanderbilt: 154

Kentucky after winning the 2021 SEC championships, courtesy of the SEC

As the competition went on, the Wildcats blew wind through a turbine, creating what turned out to be unstoppable momentum. They established a narrow 2-point lead over Alabama on Day 1. Thursday was their toughest day as they finished the final session in 5th place, although the 2nd to 5th were separated by just 22 points. .

After day 3, Florida and Kentucky separated from the rest of the field, first and third respectively, with an 8 point difference between them. Leading the Kentucky Highway on day 3 was Lauren Poole and Gillian davey in the 400IM, finishing 1-2, Izzy Gati ranking 3rd in the 100 fly, Riley gaines win the free 200, Caitlin brooks scoring 3rd in the 100 backstroke, and the Kentucky 400 medley placing in the top 3.

Saturday was no different for the Wildcats who finished 2-3 in the 200 backstroke (Sophie sorenson and Brooks) and 2nd in the 200 breaststroke (Davey.) Entering the relay, Kentucky had already established a 103-point lead over the University of Florida.

The Wildcats claimed the victory with both swimmers arriving on their campus as stars, like Sorenson who went on to become the Iowa State record holder in the 100-meter (54.61), alongside swimmers they trained to become stars. For example, last year Poole was 13th in the 200 breaststroke and 24th in the 400IM. Brooks finished 15th in the 100 fly last year and has now climbed to 9th with a new lifetime record.

Another major source of Kentucky’s lead was the fact that they had won the most spots in the final session on Friday and Saturday, with 17 and 18 swimmers in the final heats, respectively. Here is a breakdown of the number of points scored by swimmers from each school in individual events:

INDIVIDUAL SCORES PER YEAR

Thanks to Andrew Mering for directing the numbers.

Kentucky
FR 95.5
SO 284
JR 367.5
SR 114
Return 747

The majority of Kentucky’s points came from their junior class, while their senior and rookie classes scored the least. This means that the majority of the top point scorers will return for the 2021-2022 season and will once again be able to earn major points for the team. Similar to Kentucky was Alabama, whose senior class scored 30 of their 657 total points.



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