KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The Vanderbilt swimming team posted a pair of season-best times in relay races to close out the opening night of competition at the SEC Championships at the Alan Jones Aquatic Center in Knoxville on Tuesday.
In their initial event of the week, the team of Abby Burke, Faith Knelson, Tonner DeBeer and Eleanor Beers recorded a time of 1:40.79 in the 200 medley relay, which was nearly a second faster than the group’s performance in a victory over Arkansas-Little Rock to close out the regular season. Beers would return to the pool with Taylor Ward, Alina Stout and Mercedes Traba in the 800 freestyle relay, with the Commodores posting a 7:25.81 mark to come in almost 10 seconds ahead of the previous best time this season set at the Miami Invitational in November.
“It was a good, solid start to the meet for us, we’re happy that both relays had their best times of the season,” said Vanderbilt head coach Jeremy Organ. “We were hoping to be a little bit better, but we have to take this and build on it tomorrow when we start the individual events. Everyone is excited and prepared to have a great morning tomorrow.”
The championships will continue on Wednesday with the day’s schedule including the 50 and 500 freestyle, and the 200 individual medley. Preliminary heats will get underway at 8:30 a.m. (CT), with finals set to begin at 4:30 p.m.
All sessions of the championships will air live on SEC Network+.
Follow along with the Commodores’ action in Knoxville during the SEC Championships by following @VandySwimming on Twitter and Instagram.
