Vols Win Three Relay Medals on Day 1 of SEC Meet

Wednesday, February 14

College Station, TX

All Day

University of Tennessee

SEC Championships: Day 1

February 14, 2018 | Swimming & Diving

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COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Tennessee brought home relay gold, silver and bronze and broke three school records Wednesday to open the SEC Swimming and Diving Championships at the Texas A&M Natatorium.

Tennessee won the women's 200-yard medley relay, finished second in the men's 200 medley relay and took third in the women's 800 freestyle relay.

Through six complete events, the Tennessee men are third (174 points) with Texas A&M leading (189). The Lady Vols are third (136) with the Aggies leading with 160.

The Lady Vols captured the first swimming gold medal of the meet, with the team of Micah Bohon, Tjasa Pintar, Madeline Banic and Erika Brown winning the 200-yard medley relay in 1:35.21.

Texas A&M led at the midway point, but Tennessee turned up the speed in the back half of the relay. Banic closed the gap on the butterfly leg, and Erika Brown dropped a 50-yard freestyle split of 20.81 -- more than one second faster than A&M's Raena Eldridge and the third-fastest split ever recorded by a woman -- to beat the Aggies out at the wall 1:35.21 to 1:35.54.

The Tennessee men followed with a record-setting performance. The team of Braga Verhage, Peter John Stevens, Ryan Coetzee and Kyle DeCoursey lowered the program record by more than half a second in 1:23.02 to take second, just behind Florida's time of 1:22.94.

Later in the session, Brown and Bohon joined Stanzi Moseley and Tess Cieplucha in the 800 freestyle relay to take bronze and set a school record in 6:58.85.

Tennessee wrapped up the night with a fourth-place finish and another school record in the men's 800 freestyle relay. Joey Reilman, Kyle DeCoursey, Sam McHugh and Joshua Walsh finished in 6:18.53.

In diving, senior Liam Stone and redshirt junior Zhipeng (Colin) Zeng were both plagued by one wayward dive in their six-dive list that pushed them out of medal contention. Despite scoring just 10 points on his fourth dive, Zeng was still fourth with 400.25 points. Stone, the 3-meter champion as a freshman, was fifth with a score of 394.70.

Junior Rachel Rubadue nearly reached the finals of the 1-meter springboard, finishing two places outside the championships field in 10th with a six-dive score of 277.85. Ana Celaya Hernandez was 24th (237.95) and Emily Pelletier was 27th (234.20).

UP NEXT: The first swimming preliminary events will be held Thursday with the 500 freestyle, 200 IM and 50 freestyle beginning at 11 a.m. Eastern (10 a.m. Central). The men's 1-meter springboard preliminaries will follow. The finals start at 7 p.m. Eastern (6 p.m. Central) and will include the finals of all four events as well as the 200 freestyle relay.

UT RECORDS BROKEN: Three Tennessee program records were set Wednesday:

Men's 200 Medley Relay - Verhage, Stevens, Coetzee, DeCoursey - 1:23.02 (old record: 1:23.64; 2017)

Women's 800 Freestyle Relay - Brown, Moseley, Cieplucha, Bohon - 6:58.85 (old record: 6:58.91; 2013)

Men's 800 Freestyle Relay - Reilman, DeCoursey, McHugh, Walsh - 6:18.53 (old record: 6:19.01; 2008)

FAST FACT: Tennessee has now won the SEC title in the women's 200 medley relay six times since 2010 (2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018). The Lady Vols have won both medley relays twice (2012, 2015).

QUOTES:
Tennessee Head Coach Matt Kredich:
"I thought our relays were exceptional. From last year, we identified our 800 free relays as a weak spot. We put a lot of work in and it was nice to get back on the podium for the women. It was a sign of progress. I'm happy with the way our team competed. So many things can change over the course of an 800. We had a huge swim by Walsh in the 800 free. As a freshman, he split a 1:33. That was maybe the swim of the night.

"Erika Brown splitting 20.8 ... She's one of three or four women who have ever broken 21 on the relay. Kyle DeCoursey's 18.1 was phenomenal too. I'm proud of our women for running down A&M to win an SEC championship. That's always something to celebrate. Our guys demolished the school record. We know we can improve there too. It was not a perfect night, but we can learn from the way we handled some mistakes and frustrations. It was inspiring to watch Liam and Colin fight."

Tennessee Diving Coach Dave Parrington:
"We turned it around. Colin was fourth. In Colin's case, he went just too far over on the end. It was a real shame. He was in position to certainly at least medal. It was an unfortunate thing. He had a tough day, overcoming some illness this morning. I was proud of his fight, the way he came back. Liam put in a harder dive than what he's been doing. it's something that will help him down the road. I'm proud of the guys. They worked hard. Will (Hallam) was right in the mix there in a high quality prelim event with two dives to go. He missed his biggest DD dive just a little bit. For him, it's special to do that against a quality field. It was a highly competitive 1-meter. Rachel did some good stuff and was in the mix. I was pleased with her aggressiveness."