Feb. 13, 2018
COLLEGE STATION, Texas
The Vanderbilt swimming team is in College Station, Texas this week for the SEC Swimming and Diving Championships from February 14-18 at the Student Recreation Center Natatorium.
Vanderbilt is set to compete in the conference finale across the next five days, with preliminary races in the morning and event finals in the evening. All teams will send swimmers to the preliminary races for events every morning with qualifiers racing in the finals of those events starting at 6 p.m. that night.
“We’re looking forward to having a good week, it will be really exciting to get going,” said head coach Jeremy Organ, who is leading the Dores into their 12th SEC championships. “We want to get going with our relays and set the tone for the rest of the week.”
Vanderbilt’s relay teams have had multiple top-three swims in 2017-18, finishing in first place five times across the season. However, due to some nagging injuries, there are some relay teams that will feature a different combination of swimmers than in the early part of the season.
But even with the new faces, the swimmers say they are still prepared to compete.
“It’s exciting for us, we know each other and how we race,” Senior Breanna Sapienza said. “We’ve raced these relays a lot this season, we’re looking forward to it and think we’re going to do well [at the SECs].”
Vanderbilt’s success in the relay events led to multiple dual wins for the Dores this season but Organ is looking for the team’s best this week.
“We’re looking to have great performances out of everyone, and telling them to beat their personal best times,” Organ said. “If we can get that reach that goal, we’re going to have a successful week.”
Vanderbilt comes into the Lone Star State for the second time in the last 30 days, having competed against Houston and fellow SEC member Arkansas in a tri-meet in Houston in January. Vandy’s most recent competition was a 150-92 triumph over Arkansas Little Rock in Arkansas at the end of January. The Dores won 13 of 14 events in that competition to lead them into the championships this week.
This is will be the final SEC championships for the team’s seniors, and Organ is expecting more than just great swims from the class of 2018, he wants them to continue their roles as leaders as well.
“It’s a great group of girls; they’re already trying to help the freshmen with what to expect and how to handle the event.” Organ said.
The order of events works in Vanderbilt’s favor, as the team’s strongest events are spread throughout the week. The relay teams have at least one event every day except Friday with different lengths of the individual events are spread across the week as well.
“The goal is to prepare for a race each day,” Organ said. “There’s going to be a day where not everyone has a race so we get what we can put together for each day, and take it a day at a time.
Fans can follow along with the race on Texas A&M’s website here. The entire championship will also be streamed on the SEC Network+ and all events featuring Vanderbilt swimmers will have updates on the team’s twitter handle @vanderbiltswim.
ORDER OF EVENTS
Events with Vanderbilt swimmers in bold
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 14
200 medley relay finals
800 free relay finals
THURSDAY, FEB. 15
500 free prelims
200 individual medley prelims
50 free prelims
500 free finals
200 individual medley finals
50 free finals
200 free relay finals
FRIDAY, FEB. 16
400 individual medley prelims
100 fly prelims
200 free prelims
400 individual medley finals
100 fly finals
200 free finals
SATURDAY, FEB. 17
200 fly prelims
100 back prelims
100 breast prelims
200 fly finals
100 back finals
100 breast finals
400 medley relay finals
SUNDAY, FEB. 18
200 back prelims
100 free prelims
200 breast prelims
1650 free finals
200 back finals
100 free finals
200 breast finals
400 free relay finals
