University of Tennessee Athletics
SEC Day 2 Quotes
February 16, 2012 | Men's Swimming & Diving
Feb. 16, 2012
SEC Swimming and Diving Championships
Day 2 Quotes
Ryan Helms, Tennessee
Men's 1-Meter Diving champion
"It is definitely a special thing to have my whole team here, my family here and to just win in the pool that I practice in every day. This is my senior year, so there are a lot of memories here."
"I had a great meet last year on the 1 meter and it so happened that I got beat out by teammate by a few points. I am not sure what the exact score was but I am sure I was within a couple of points of that score from last year. It is a great score to have on 1 meter. I have gone that high all year so it was definitely a great performance for me."
"It was pretty cool to win both 1 meter and 3 meter. It is always easy to get comfortable after a win. After yesterday's competition, I made a point to come back and not be happy with that."
Dave Parrington, Tennessee diving coach
On Ryan Helms' two wins
"Ryan Helms, he's a special guy. He is a really fantastic student-athlete. He has been on the edge each of the past three years since he's been here, knocking on the door for SEC titles and finally he broke through yesterday and he came back and really won handily today. It's just great to see him get the double. I'm just very pleased with Ryan."
Lars Jorgensen, Tennessee interim head coach
"We had some great swims today. I was real proud of Tristan Slater, a freshman, finaling in first SEC Championship. His 200y IM was awesome. He dropped three seconds off his personal best and he was competing against world class swimmers. He is working toward getting there. As a freshman, he was phenomenal. Ed Walsh swam great tonight, leading off our relay. Our goal was to get third, as I talked to the guys about getting behind Florida and Auburn. That was probably the best we could do, so we couldn't have been much better. There were a few things we could have done better this morning, but tonight was a good session. We need to come out tomorrow and be real sharp."
Amber McDermott, Georgia

Women's 500 Free champion
"All my hard work has paid off so hopefully everyone else will be doing great too. I usually take it out pretty fast, but I wasn't getting too comfortable because I know a lot of people have great back-halves. Shannon (Vreeland) and I train together all the time, so it's really great to be on the podium together."
Martin Grodzki, Georgia
Women's 500 Free champion
"I knew I was going to make my move at 250 or 300 at the latest. I saw that no one could go with me. At that point, I felt pretty good about it. My time was alright and was pretty good for not being tapered. I definitely wanted to win this year after finishing second last year."
Elizabeth Beisel, Florida
Women's 200 IM champion
"I'm a little disappointed with the time (1:54.89). I thought I was going to be able to go faster than this morning. But it's the best time by 2 seconds over what my time was before, so I can't really complain and I'm glad I was able to get the win for the team. I knew exactly where I was. In the breaststroke leg, when everybody started catching me - it always happens - I just try to swim my own race and put the blinders on, I guess. It's awesome. I love this pool. And the crowd here is awesome; they're so loud and it really gets you excited for the race."
Marcin Cieslak, Florida

Men's 200 IM
"I got second last year so this is really great. I have had guys pushing me and I really wanted to win. This is my best time and faster than last year. I feel like I am making progress. My goal was 1:43 and that is what it took to win. The atmosphere here is great."
Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace, Auburn

Women's 50 Free champion
"I'm kind of struggling with my details in this race. In prelims, I took an extra stroke into the wall and did it again this afternoon. Luckily, I get to lead off on the relay so I'm going to try it again and try to go a little bit faster again. This is an awesome pool. It's a really fast pool. I love it. I felt pretty good going into the race, but in the 50 freestyle you kind of just have to shove your head off and go into it."
Bradley deBorde, Florida

Men's 50 Free champion
"I have really been really working on this race a lot. I have the best training mates in the sprint group this year. We have really been pushing to have a good finish this in the 50. It is a great win for Florida. I wanted to go a little faster but I am pretty happy with my time."
Courtney Forcucci, South Carolina

Women's 3-meter Diving champion
"I haven't digested everything quite yet. It was a really great meet and a lot of fun to compete in. Our team was great cheering and I really just enjoyed myself on the boards. I was thinking, `Don't go in; don't go out. Just do what you've practiced.' I get with Todd (Sherritt, diving coach) before every dive and get a correction and I just focus on what Todd tells me to do. Usually if I hit that objective, I'm right on cue. I'm really happy with how I've performed. I've done a lot of hard work and preparation to get here and it's really paying off. I just hope to keep it going for the rest of this weekend on platform and through NCAAs."
Drew Modrov, Auburn

Men's 200 Free Relay champion
"The 200 free relay is kind of Auburn's thing; we're known for our sprinting. So we know we've just got to go out there and put down a good performance, help this team out and give them the boost we need going into tomorrow. We just went out there, did our race and we won. We tried to get out ahead and just keep it that way. The pool's pretty good so far - some fast swimming and we're ready for some more."
Emily Bos, Auburn
Women's 200 Free Relay
"It was great having Arianna (Vanderpool-Wallace) leading us out in good, open water. We all wanted to win and got the job done. It feels great to be a SEC champion."
