COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Two podium finishes, two finalists in the diving well, one school record and a handful of top-10 swims in school history highlighted a promising start to the 2023 SEC Championships for the Auburn Tigers. At the end of the night, the men sit in second with 166 points while the women are positioned in seventh with 119 points.
Meghan Lee, Anastasia Makarova, Claudia Thamm and Lexie Mulvihill kicked off the festivities with the 200 medley relay. Dropping almost a second, their time of 1:36.02 was good enough for fourth place, an NCAA A-cut and the third-fastest time in school history.
The men's quartet of Aidan Stoffle, Reid Mikuta, Nate Stoffle and Kalle Makinen also pieced together the third-fastest time in Auburn history. Their 1:22.98 was 0.38 seconds fast than the Fall Invite and earned the Tigers its first bronze medal of the week.
When it came time for the 800 free relay, Polina Nevmovenko, Kensley Merritt, Rebekah Hamilton and Hannah Ownbey shaved off more than two seconds on their best time of the year. A 7:06.49 solidified eighth place for Auburn.
Closing out the night in style, Michael Bonson, Mason Mathias, Ryan Husband and Mikkel Gadgaard threw down the performance of the night and had the Orange and Blue faithful blowing the top off the place in the 800 free relay. Trailing Alabama by half a body length, Gadgaard delivered one of the most impressive 25's in Auburn history. The Danish international chased down the Crimson Tide for not only second place but a school record by over two seconds as well.
DIVING
The Auburn men's diving crew kicked off the 2023 SEC Championships. It was job done for Conner Pruitt in prelims of the 1-meter. His 318.75 was good enough for fourth and a trip to finals. Whit Andrus narrowly missed out on the afternoon diving session. His 295.15 was just over two points shy of eighth. Walker Creedon and Hunter Kebler both finished in the top 20 to score points for the Tigers.
In the evening, Pruitt bettered his total, putting together a list that scored 319.45 and earned the fifth-year seventh place.
Ashlynn Sullivan did the heavy lifting on the 3-meter. A hard-earned score of 292.50 got Sullivan into the evening's finals. Gretchen Wensuc and Abigail Farrar finished 27th and 28th, respectively.
It was a 289.15 for Sullivan in the finals, good enough to move her up a place to seventh to round out the diving action for the night.
SCORES
Men
1. Texas A&M - 229
2. Auburn - 166
3. Tennessee - 159
4. Florida - 138
5. Missouri - 126
6. South Carolina - 115
7. Georgia - 113
8. Alabama - 107
9. Kentucky - 86
10. Louisiana State – 65
Women
1. Louisiana State - 178
2. Florida - 150
3. Kentucky - 149
4. South Carolina - 142
5. Tennessee - 136
6. Alabama - 131
7. Auburn - 119
8. Georgia - 107
9. Missouri - 105
10. Arkansas - 97
11. Vanderbilt - 62
12. Texas A&M - 56
UP NEXT
Day two in College Station brings the 500 free, the 200 IM, the 50 free and the women's 1-meter diving. Prelims begin at 9:30 a.m. CT and finals are slated for 5:30 p.m. CT. For those not at the championships, the SEC Network+ has coverage of all the action.
Record, relays highlight day one of SEC Championships
