University of Tennessee Athletics
Lady Vol Swimmers and Divers Open SEC Competition
February 21, 2001 | Women's Swimming & Diving
SEC Championships: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — A pair of relays and the three-meter diving highlighted the first day of competition at the 2001 Southeastern Conference Championships for the University of Tennessee women’s swimming and diving team on Wednesday at the Alabama Aquatic Center.
The three-meter springboard diving competition featured three divers from Tennessee. Senior Lizzy Flynt was the only Lady Vol to advance to the finals of the event as she notched a score of 459.05 in the preliminaries. In the finals, Flynt took fourth overall with a tally of 475.65. Flynt finished sixth on the 3m board at last year’s SEC Championships.
The other representatives for the Orange and White earned valuable points in the preliminaries, but did not advance to the finals. Freshman Kylee Wells made her conference meet debut and finished 11th with a score of 440.55 while sophomore Jaime Sanger finished 13th with a mark of 439.85. Robyn Grimes of Florida won the 3m competition with a score of 509.80.
In the 200y medley relay, the squad was disqualified but did swim a time of 1:41.76, which would have been a school record mark, bettering the old mark of 1:43.04. The relay unit will attempt to replicate that performance with time trials on Sunday to attempt to earn the NCAA mark of 1:43.87. Auburn won the event overall with a time of 1:39.37.
In the evening’s final event, the 800y free relay, the Lady Vols recorded a seventh-place finish with a time of 7:23.90. The team for that event consisted of junior Elizabeth Philp, junior Laura Hancock, senior Azurdee Engel and senior Tanya Felton. Georgia set a SEC record while taking the win in the race with a time of 7:06.81.
"It was upsetting to have the 200y medley relay disqualified, especially after they had a time that was so far under the school record," Tennessee head coach Dan Colella said. "Everyone in that race, with the exception of the person who jumped, had outstanding splits. Now, we just have to work harder to make up ground over the next three days. If these splits are any indication, we can achieve that goal."
In the overall team standings, Georgia leads with 89 points and is followed closely by LSU with 88. Florida is in third with 85 points on the night while Auburn has 75 and Kentucky and Alabama are tied for fifth with 74. South Carolina sits in seventh place with 65 points and the Lady Vols are currently in eighth with 48 followed by Arkansas with 29 points in ninth.
The competition at the SEC Championships will continue through Saturday in Tuscaloosa.
