University of Tennessee Athletics
University of Tennessee
SEC Championships - Finals
Helms Captures Gold in 3-Meter
February 15, 2012 | Men's Swimming & Diving
Feb. 15, 2012
Senior diver Ryan Helms has been close before, but after a career performance on the 3-meter springboard Wednesday, he can call himself a Southeastern Conference champion.
After getting two silver medals at last year's meet, Helms recorded personal-best score of 446.20 in the finals to seize the conference title in the 3-meter competition to open the SEC Swimming and Diving Championships at Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center.
"What a great day to be a Tennessee diver," Tennessee diving coach Dave Parrington said. "Ryan Helms epitomizes everything we are about and has had a fantastic career but what has been lacking is an SEC Championship. You couldn't ask for a finer young man to step up tonight and win his first SEC Championship."
Freshman Mauricio Robles was not far behind, earning the bronze medal with a career-best score of 412.90. Kentucky's Greg Ferrucci was second in 427.30.
Helms had entered the 3-meter as the leading diver in the conference. He took the silver medal last season at the conference meet at Florida with a 407.15 score. The title Wednesday was just another accolade for the senior diver in his final year. He has already qualified for the Olympic Trials in the 3-meter and is representing Team USA in the Canada Cup.
In a career of close calls in the conference meets, Helms now has his gold medal with two diving events left. He has the second-best SEC score in the 1 meter and fourth in the platform this year.
"He has been second a number of times and been right in the mix every year he's been with us, but to get over the hump and win tonight in front of his home crowd and in his home pool," Parrington said. "He stepped up tonight. When he hit that first dive for 83 points I knew the rest of the field were in trouble for the rest of the night. I'm very, very proud of Ryan."
With the championship, Helms became Tennessee's 16th SEC champion in the 3 meter and the first since Phillip Jones won his second title in 2004.
"It does mean a lot," Helms said. "It's great to have family here. It's just all the better to have it in my home pool. It's the same place I practice every day, three hours a day. It does mean a lot more just to have it here. It's awesome to dive in the home pool in front of the home crowd."
Robles previous career best in the 3-meter was 398. He became the eighth diver in program to surpass 400 points in a six-dive list.
"Mauricio started a little rough this afternoon but came back strong and made the finals," Parrington said. "To finish in the top three as a freshman in this conference is a fantastic job."
The first day of the meet was reserved for mainly diving and relays. In other events, the Vols finished fourth in the 200-yard medley relay in the first race fo the evening final session. The team of Ricky Henahan, Jake Epperson, Oystein Hetland and Ed Walsh clocked a season-best time of 1:26.73. Auburn won the event win an NCAA A-Cut time of 1 minute, 24.38 seconds.
Tennessee got a fifth-place finish in the 800 freestyle relay with Tristan Slater, Samuel Rairden, Ben Scheffer and Jake Epperson ending in 6:29.49. Auburn won the race in 6:20.63.
"Ryan Helms was fantastic tonight and congratulations to him," Tennessee interim head coach Lars Jorgensen said. "He is well deserving to be the SEC Champion. He's worked as hard as anybody I've known since I've been here. I thought our relays were OK tonight, but I thought the guys competed hard. We talk about the meet being seven sessions and each one is important. We have to just keep trying to get better every session, that is one of our goals."
The great start by the Vols in diving and the points collected in relays have Tennessee tied for first with Auburn in the team standings with 106 points each. LSU and Georgia are tied for third with 73.
SEC Swimming and Diving Championships
Men's Results
Wednesday
200 Medley Relay: 1. Auburn (Owens, Ferguson, Chierighini, Krug) 1:24.38; 2. Georgia (Arnold, Fink, Reynolds, Simmons) 1:26.16; 3. Florida (Homer, Elliott, Cieslak, deBorde) 1:26.28; 4. Tennessee (Henahan, Epperson, Hetland, Walsh) 1:26.73; 5. LSU (Youn, Tuomola, Jungfleisch, Saco) 1:26.97; 6. South Carolina (Warner, Cave, Badillo, Seiler) 1:28.33; 7. Alabama (Shirey, Terry, Coci, Caciuc) 1:28.25.
3-Meter: 1. Ryan Helms (UT) 446.20; 2. Greg Ferrucci (UK) 427.30; 3. Mauricio Robles (UT) 412.90; 4. John Santeiu (AUB) 386.80; 5. John Fox (UK) 365.30; 6. Cole Miller (South Carolina) 353.95; 7. Corey Cowger (UK) 351.60; 8. Fraser Mckean (AUB) 334.45.
800 Free Relay: 1. Auburn (Owens, Disney-May, Browning, Grothe) 6:20.63; 2. Florida (Cieslak, Signorin, Caldwell, Solaeche) 6:20.86; 3. Georgia (Hille, Markham, Fink, Benner) 6:25.35; 4. LSU (Greeff, Love, Hamilton, Kunkel) 6:28.85; 5. Tennessee (Slater, Rairden, Scheffer, Epperson) 6:29.49; 6. Kentucky (Green, Reed, Heidler, Gerotto) 6:30.42; 7. South Carolina (Rodriguez, Crawford, Covert, Kaden) 6:32.83.
Men's Standings
After Day 1
1. Tennessee 106
1. Auburn 106
3. Georgia 73
3. LSU 73
5. Kentucky 71
6. Florida 67
7. South Carolina 63
8. Alabama 24
