University of Tennessee Athletics
Lady Vols Off to Fast Start at SECs
February 16, 2011 | Women's Swimming & Diving
Feb. 16, 2011
By Todd Mounce, Media Relations Graduate Assistant
GAINESVILLE, Fla. - The ninth-ranked Tennessee Lady Vol swimming team kicked off the 2011 SEC Swimming Championships in record fashion behind outstanding performances in the 200y medley relay and 800y free relay on Wednesday evening at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center.
"We had eight swims and six of them were phenomenal and the other two were pretty darn good," said Lady Vol Head Coach Matt Kredich. "This atmosphere is phenomenal and the fact that we had some success tonight is really going to give our team a lift. It came from all classes, all distances and it was a good start."
The Orange and White opened the meet with a third-place finish in the 200y medley relay. The quartet of junior Jenny Connolly, senior Martina Moravcikova, sophomore Kelsey Floyd and freshman Mary Kate McNeilis registered an NCAA A-cut time of 1:37.09.
The time was a season-best by over three seconds and ranks third in the Lady Vol record books. Auburn won the event by touching in at 1:36.11.
The Tennessee 800y free relay squad consisting of Gendron, McNeilis, senior Aleksa Akerfelds and Floyd then shattered a Lady Vol record in the relay event with a clocking of 7:03.44. The third-place time tops the previous best Lady Vol record by nearly four seconds, ranks fourth in the country and is an NCAA B-cut.
Swimming the lead split, Gendron swam a 200y free time of 1:44.51, which ranks as the third fastest time in Tennessee history only behind Christine Magnuson.
The Big Orange currently sits in fifth with 96 points, while Auburn is atop the leader board with 166 points.
Day two of the Championships will begin at 10 a.m. with the preliminary rounds of the 500y free, 200y IM and 50y free. The finals of those events plus the 200y free relay will begin at 6 p.m. and live video and stats will be available at UTLadyVols.com
Team Scores: 1.) Auburn - 166 2.)Florida - 153 3.) South Carolina - 108 4.) Georgia - 106 5.) Tennessee - 96 6.) LSU - 93.5 7.) Kentucky - 83 8.) Arkansas - 76 9.) Alabama - 73.5 10.) Vanderbilt - 3
