Feb. 18, 2018
COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The Vanderbilt swim team finished the five-day SEC Swimming and Diving Championships Sunday evening at the Recreation Center Natatorium on the campus of Texas A&M.
Five more Dores earned personal-bests Sunday morning, which makes 18 PRs during the course of the championships. In the 100 free, Eun Sol Chon (53.60), Madeline Hunt (52.08) and Namilla Sanchez (52.76) all posted new career-bests. Hannah Hunt set a new PR in the 200-yard breaststroke with a 2:15.23.
In the final day of her final SEC Championships, senior Kate Hornaday posted a new PR in the 200-yard backstroke to go along with a PR she set in the 100-yard backstroke earlier in the week.
“I’ve been working really hard all season to try and better [the backstrokes],” Hornaday said. “I knew that the 100 back would come if I trained the 200 back. They’re my favorite events to swim at the SECs.”
Hornaday wasn’t the only Commodore that set multiple personal-bests. Chon, Madison Eaker, Brooke Ellis and Sanchez all set two PRs each and Breanna Sapienza and Lauren Bergmann set one new record each.The Hunt sisters put on a performance in College Station, as Madeline and the younger Hannah each set three new personal records.
Sapienza’s personal-best came a little sweeter than the others, as her 59.95 PR in the 100-yard fly was not only a personal-best but a school record as well. She broke her own school record from 2016.
Sapienza was also on two relay teams that set school records during the week. The 200-yard medley relay team set the new bar at 1:39.12, and the 200-yard freestyle relay team came in at 1:31.71. Madeline Hunt and Johanna Goldblatt were also on both record-breaking relay teams. Hannah Hunt was the fourth member of the medley relay and Brenda Cha was the fourth member of the freestyle relay.
The championships marked the last events for the five-member senior class. The class, consisting of Sapienza, Madeline Hunt, Cha, Hornaday and Summer Brown, set five school records during their time on West End.
