COLUMBIA, Mo. – The Auburn men wrapped up the SEC Championships on Friday, and with 671 points over four days of competition, the Tigers finished in eighth place overall.
The final day saw 10 Auburn swimmers score points, including five freshmen. Two of those freshmen, Michael Bonson and Reid Mikuta, finished ninth in their individual events. Bonson swam the ninth-fastest 1650 freestyle of the day while Mikuta came back in the night session and won the 200 breast B-Final to secure ninth place.
"All in all, there were some good things from each and every day," Auburn head coach Gary Taylor said. "We were neck-and-neck in a team battle for a couple of days. We've got to figure out how to finish it. I think there are a ton of positives, but I'm certainly far from satisfied and feel like we're capable of more. It's my responsibility to continue to progress the program."
Florida won its ninth straight SEC Men's Championship with 1,401 points.
DAY 4 HIGHLIGHTS
Bonson, Aryan Makhija and Grady Wheeler all scored points for Auburn in the 1650 freestyle to kick off the night. Bonson's time of 15:06.37 was a lifetime best and moved him into seventh all-time in Auburn history. Makhija and Wheeler both swam season bests.
In the 200 breaststroke, Mikuta also etched his name in the record books becoming the sixth-fastest at Auburn with a time of 1:55.02. It was the freshman's second top-10 performance of the week. He moved up to No. 9 in the 100 breast on Thursday. Fellow freshman Alejandro Flores swam a lifetime best (1:57.41) to finish fourth in the 200 breast C-Final.
Freshmen Logan Tirheimer and Evan McInenry both swam B-Finals on Friday. Tirheimer put in one of the swims of the meet with a lifetime-best 43.47 in the 100 freestyle prelims while McInerny bested his PR from prelims with a 1:45.39 to finish fifth in the 200 butterfly B-Final.
Auburn had four swimmers make it through to the 200 backstroke finals. Sophomores Lleyton Smith and Aidan Stoffle led the way, each earning a spot in the B-Final. Stoffle's prelims time (43.44) was a new lifetime best. Senior Christian Ginieczki finished second in the C-Final where he was joined by freshman Elliott Jones, who took sixth.
The Tigers closed the meet with a sixth-place finish in the 400 freestyle relay. Junior Christian Sztolcman led off with a new lifetime-best performance in the 100 free (43.12).
Other lifetime-best times from Friday's prelims included a trio of freshmen - Jadan Nabor (200 back), Mikkel Gadgaard (100 free) and Ryan Husband (100 free).
QUOTEABLE
Head coach Gary Taylor
On Evan McInenry in the 200 butterfly…
"He had a strong finish tonight, moves up a spot and finishes 13th in that B-Final. I loved seeing the hunger. He drops a hundredth off the morning swim but felt like he should have been a little bit better and wanted to atone for that. I told him to stay hungry and continue to think about that moving forward as you train."
On the future of the men's program…
"I'm really excited about the next couple years as we got some young guys that stepped up and performed well. We only lose two seniors from this SEC Championship roster, and we've got a great class coming in. The future looks bright."
TEAM STANDINGS
1. Florida: 1401
2. Georgia: 1324.50
3. Tennessee: 850.50
4. Texas A&M: 843
5. Alabama: 841.50
6. Missouri: 802
7. Kentucky: 759
8. Auburn: 671
9. LSU: 427.50
10. South Carolina: 232
Tigers close SEC Men’s Championships with 671 points
