University of Tennessee Athletics
SEC Swimming & Diving Championships Day 3 Quotes
February 16, 2017 | Swimming & Diving
Matt Kredich | Tennessee Head Coach
(On how the week has gone so far)
"This is another really good day for us. We had a really good representation in every event we had an A-finalist in everything except the women's 200 freestyle. It was a good morning, I thought we positioned ourselves well. The most impressive thing to me was that every swimmer either got faster or moved up in their heat. We are competing really well against great competition. Madeline Banic and Meghan Small both dropped quit a bit of time, as did the rest of the heat. We saw some really great swimming from Joey Reilman. His 200 free is arguable his third best event and for him to be playing with the A finalist shows he is really improving rapidly. Ryan Coetzee might have had the swim of the night. He touched out several people in that heat, it was a really well executed race. So today was a really big day for him. It was his first time qualifying individually for a NCAA race. I'm thrilled with the energy level of our team. We are competing with a lot of heart but also we are using skills we have been practicing all year. I think we are picking up steam."
Dave Parrington | Tennessee Diving Coach
(On the prelim dives of Nick Rusek and Michael Howell)
"I am extremely proud of Nick and Michael, Nick had 27 points better than his career best, under those circumstances hit his first dive missed his second. His second one made a similar mistake to what Liam Stone made tonight. The greatest top of his life on that particular dive and went flying over. But hit every dive after that making a run to the finals. I think somebody said Michael had 50 points better than a year ago in this meet and for him to finish his conference career that way is just the best, couldn't be more happy for that young man. That bodes well for both of them going into platform."
(On Liam Stone's comeback in the 3-meter springboard)
"He missed his hands on his first dive that was a bummer, that was the difference between 66 and 80 points. His second dive, he had an incredible hurdle went I don't know how high off the boards, turning like crazy and he's never been that high and that fast on that particular dive and came out a little bit late. What he showed after that, to scrap back and fight and claw back into the competition when he could have just hung his head low, showed an immense amount of character from him."
Chase Kalisz | Georgia | 400 IM
(On winning gold)
"I'm glad that race is over. I was just trying to get home and touch the wall so that I could feel my legs again. I accomplished everything I wanted to last summer. It was always a goal of mine to make the Olympic team. Now I'm happy I get to compete my senior year for the Georgia Bulldogs."
Sydney Pickrem | Texas A&M | 400 IM Champion
(On defending 400 IM title)
"I tried to not to think too much about repeating, I wanted to just trust in the process and not really think about the final outcome. I'm obviously pleased with the best time -- you can't go wrong with that. There's a lot to work on still, but I'm definitely happy with the race."
(On teammate Bethany Galat finishing second)
"I saw `Big Beth' through the whole race and it's kind of what we do every day in practice," Pickrem said. "It's nice to be next to someone that you know their training and what they do. As soon as we finished, we're out of breath and Beth is like `THIS ... WAS ... SO ... FUN!' That's what you live for -- races like that."
Sarah Gibson | Texas A&M | 100 Butterfly Champion
(On defending 100 fly title)
"I saw at the turn that I was trailing and all I could think about was that we need these points and the team is counting on me. I knew I had to abandon all caution and go for it. I was pretty sure my legs were going to fall off on that last underwater, but I put faith in my training and it seemed to work out okay."
