Swim & Dive Central: SEC Championships – Women’s Swimming & Men’s and Women’s Diving

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Championship season begins in earnest this week with the SEC Swimming & Diving Championships starting for the fifth-ranked Lady Vols in Athens, Georgia and for Tennessee's divers in Columbia, Missouri.

Due to COVID-19 protocols set in place by the SEC's Medical Guidance Task Force, the University of Georgia will host the SEC Women's Swimming Championship February 17-20 at Gabrielsen Natatorium, while the University of Missouri will host the SEC Men's and Women's Diving Championships over the same four day period. Missouri will also host the SEC Men's Swimming Championship on February 23-26.

The championships get underway Wednesday in Missouri with the women's 1-meter springboard preliminaries, beginning at 5 p.m. ET. The women's 1-meter final will follow prelims and is expected to start at 8:10 p.m.

In Georgia, the day begins with time trials at 10 a.m. Finals of the 200 medley relay start at 5 p.m. and will be followed by the 800 free relay final.

All sessions of the championships will air live on SEC Network+.

2021 marks the first time since 1986 that the men's and women's swimming championships have been contested separately. That year, the women competed in Knoxville, with the men competing in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

This is the second time in three years that Georgia has hosted the women's championship. The last time in 2019, the Lady Vols finished fourth.

The women have not finished outside the top four at SECs since a fifth place finish in 2014.

REIGNING CHAMPIONS
The Lady Vols enter the 2021 SEC Swimming & Diving Championships as the reigning SEC champions. The women won their first SEC title last season and look to defend the crown this week in Athens.

TOP TIMES
The SEC Championships have an A, B and C final with eight qualifiers in each final heat. Finishers are scored 1-24 with the SEC Champion scoring 32 points for winning her A final while the last place finisher in the C final scores one point.

Tennessee currently holds 44 times across all events that rank inside the top 24 in the league this season. All five relay teams for the Lady Vols rank among the top four in the conference, including the 400 free relay which is tops in the SEC heading into the championships.

RETURNING MEDALISTS
UT returns three swimmers from last year's SEC squad that won gold medals in Nikol Popov, Tjasa Pintar and Alexis Yager. Popov won gold in 200 medley relay, while Pintar's gold medal came with the 800 free relay team. Yager was a part of the 400 medley relay for her gold medal.

Tennessee also returns a pair of silver medal winners in Amanda Nunan and Bailey Grinter and a bronze medalist in Grace Cable.

ON THE BOARDS
Nine divers will compete for Tennessee this week with four women and five men representing the Orange and White.

Three of the nine won medals last season as Cable took home bronze on women's 1-meter springboard, while Matthew Wade and Will Hallam won bronze on men's 3-meter and 1-meter, respectively.

Sophomore Elle Renner and freshmen Bryden Hattie and Jacob Reasor will make their SEC Championships debut.

The diving squad is rounded out by Ana Celaya Hernandez, Kara Holt and Keegan Richardson.

Swim & Dive Central: SEC Championships – Women’s Swimming & Men’s and Women’s Diving

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Players Mentioned

Grace Cable

Ana Celaya Hernandez

Bailey Grinter

Will Hallam

Bryden Hattie

Kara Holt

Amanda Nunan

Tjasa Pintar

Nikol Popov

Jacob Reasor

Elle Renner

Keegan Richardson

Matthew Wade

Alexis Yager

University of Tennessee Athletics