SEC – Swimming and diving for women + diving for men
- Wednesday, February 17 – Saturday, February 20,2021
- Swimming W: Gabrielson Natatorium – Athens, GA (East Zone)
- W&M Dive: Mizzou Aqutics Center – Columbia, MO (central time zone)
- Defender of the champion: Tennessee (1x) (2020 Results)
- Live results
- Live Video – SEC Network
- Central Championship
- Psychology Sheets
The University of Kentucky won its first SEC championship title, after 40 years of women’s swimming at the SEC Conference. Tonight, their victory was by a 149 point margin over the University of Georgia. The current champion, Tennessee, came in 4th.
Head coach Lars Jorgenson was not present at the start of the meeting on Wednesday because of a positive COVID test last week, but he arrived in time to see the team win the SEC Championship title on Saturday.
And that is a sign of the season. In 2021, the teams that stay at the top will be the ones that best managed the challenges presented by the global coronavirus pandemic. Florida entered the competition without star freestyler Leah Braswell, and with a final margin of 53 points, this could have been enough to balance the final result of the meeting.
But you don’t get points for those who come, but for those who show up. And Kentucky appeared in style this week in Athens.
FINAL SCORE
1. Kentucky: 1124
2. Florida: 1071
3. Georgia: 999
4. Alabama: 973
5. Tennessee: 934
6. Texas A&M: 839
7. Missouri: 614.5
8. Arkansas: 595
9. Auburn: 510
10. LSU: 390.5
11. South Carolina: 276
12. Vanderbilt: 154
Kentucky after winning the 2021 SEC Championship, courtesy of the SEC
As the competition continued, the Wildcats were blowing wind in a turbine, creating what proved to be an unstoppable amount of momentum. They established a small 2 point lead over Alabama on Day 1. Thursday was the most challenging day as they finished the finals session in 5th place, although 2nd to 5th were only 22 points apart.
After day 3, Florida and Kentucky separated from the rest of the pack, in first and third places respectively, with an 8 point difference between them. Kentucky’s leadership on day 3 was Lauren Poole and Gillian Davey in 400IM, ending 1-2, Izzy Gati ranking 3rd in the 100th position, Riley Gaines winning the 200 free, Caitlin Brooks scoring 3rd place in the 100 backs, and the Kentucky 400 medley breaking the top 3.
Saturday was no different for the Wildcats who finished 2-3 on the 200 coasts (Sophie Sorenson and Brooks) and second in the chest of 200 (Davey). Going into the relay, Kentucky had already established a 103 point lead over the University of Florida.
The Wildcats achieved this victory with swimmers who arrived on campus as stars, such as Sorenson, who became Iowa’s state record holder 100 yards ago (54.61), alongside swimmers they trained to become stars. For example, last year Poole finished 13th on the 200th chest and 24th on the 400IM. Brooks finished 15th in 100th place last year and has now jumped to 9th place with a new life record.
Another important source of Kentucky’s leadership was the fact that he won most places in the finals on Friday and Saturday, with 17 and 18 swimmers in the final heats, respectively. Here is a breakdown of how many points were scored by swimmers from each school in individual events:
INDIVIDUAL SCORE BY YEAR
Our thanks to Andrew Mering for controlling the numbers.
| Kentucky | |
| FR | 95.5 |
| THEN | 284 |
| JR | 367.5 |
| SR | 114 |
| Returning | 747 |
Most of Kentucky’s points came from its junior class, while the senior and freshman classes scored less. This means that most scorers will return for the 2021-2022 season and will be able to earn important points for the team again. Similar to Kentucky was Alabama, whose senior class scored 30 of its 657 points.