COLUMBIA, Mo. – Highlighted by three freshmen, Auburn had five swimmers advance to finals on Wednesday, the first full day of the SEC Men's Championships.
Sophomore Nik Eberly was the lone Tiger to qualify for an A-Final and placed eighth overall in the 50 freestyle. Junior Matthew Yish finished 15th in the 50 free, swimming in the B-Final.
The freshman trio included Mikkel Gadgaard, Michael Bonson and Reid Mikuta. Gadgaard and Bonson both finished top three in the B-Final of the 500 freestyle while Mikuta took fifth in the C-Final of the 200 IM. It was the first individual SEC final for all three swimmers.
"I thought we had a lot of really good freshman performances this morning," Auburn head coach Gary Taylor said. "I really challenged our returners, especially our upperclassmen, to lead the freshmen and to lead this team."
Two days into the men's meet, Auburn is seventh overall with 320 points.
DAY 2 HIGHLIGHTS
After setting lifetime bests in prelims of the 500 free, Gadgaard and Bonson topped their times in the evening session to go 1-3 in the B-Final and finish ninth and 11th respectively.
The two freshmen also made their mark at Auburn, earning spots on the program's all-time top 10 list for the event. Gadgaard is now the second-fastest in Auburn history after finishing in 4:16.60 while Bonson moved into eighth all-time with a time of 4:18.27. Zane Grothe still holds the program's fastest time at 4:14.44.
In the 200 IM, Mikuta set a new lifetime best in prelims with a time of 1:45.81 to make the C-Final. He swam another B-cut time in finals, finishing in 1:46.23 to place 21st overall.
One of the top swims of the day came from Eberly who went 19.38 in the 50 free prelims. It was sixth-fastest in the morning session and a new lifetime best for the sophomore. Yish was 14th-fastest in prelims at 19.67, qualifying for the B-Final.
The duo, Eberly and Yish, also led off Auburn's 200 freestyle relay which closed out the night in eighth place. Eberly's 19.68 in the first leg was his third B-cut of the night in the 50 free. Freshman Logan Tirheimer and sophomore Aidan Stoffle swam the third and fourth legs.
Other lifetime-best performances from prelims included Grady Wheeler (500 free), Jadan Nabor (200 IM), Elliott Jones (200 IM), Logan Tirheimer (50 free) and Ryan Husband (50 free).
QUOTEABLE
Head coach Gary Taylor
On Nik Eberly's 50 free performance…
"Nik Eberly has been a leader for us all year in the pool and on the pool deck. I'm really happy for him. He drops off his lifetime best performance and goes 19.3 and qualifies for the A-Final and does a good job tonight. I know it's not quite what he wanted, but if you've got a lane, you've got a chance."
On the mentality for the rest of the meet…
"As we move forward, we have an opportunity to be really competitive over the next couple days with the middle of this SEC pack, and so I really challenged the guys tonight to step up tomorrow morning, earn some night swims and make a run at moving up the ranks. We'll see how they respond to that. Their backs against the wall, there's some pressure in that, but it's competition. You have to step up when the pressure is on."
UP NEXT
The Auburn men will be back in the pool for prelims and finals again Thursday. The schedule includes the 400 IM, 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle, 100 breaststroke, 100 backstroke and 400 medley relay. Prelims will get underway at 10 a.m. CT with finals at 6 p.m. CT.
Watch
Day 3 Prelims
Day 3 Finals
Freshmen shine on Day 2, boost Tigers at SECs
