It was raining records inside UGA’s Gabrielsen Natatorium Thursday night.
Georgia’s Chase Kalisz and Shannon Vreeland were among the athletes to swim down records during the third day of competition at the SEC Swimming and Diving Championships.
Kalisz, a sophomore, smoked the field in the 400-yard individual medley with an SEC-record time of 3:36.89. That was more than two seconds ahead of the second-place finisher and less than one second from his stated goal, which is the U.S. record (3:35.98).
The fast time surprised Kalisz, who’s trying to save his best for the NCAA championships.
“Right now I didn’t expect to really go for it,” Kalisz said. “I’m not fully shaved and I’m not fully rested. I did about a week drop-taper and probably the least amount of rest I’ve ever done, so I was probably a little skeptical. I felt a little rusty this morning, but I got in the water tonight for warmup and I felt pretty good, so I knew I could push to see where I’d be.”
Kalisz refuses to answer questions about the academic controversy involving him that embroiled he and coach Jack Bauerle in an NCAA investigation and left the iconic Georgia coach suspended from meets.
Vreeland, a senior who is an All-American, NCAA champion and Olympic gold medalist, was equally dominant. She won the 200-yard freestyle by nearly three-quarters of a second over Tennessee’s Lindsay Gendron. Teammate Brittany MacLean finished third in what was the last women’s event of the night.
That helped the Lady Bulldogs extend an already dominating lead. They’re ahead of second-place Florida by 237 points, 879-649. Even with two days of competition remaining, that’s likely an insurmountable margin with as well as they’re performing.
“We thought it was a really important today to keep the pressure on,” said UGA senior associate coach Harvey Humphries, who filling in on the deck for Bauerle. “We wanted to come in this morning and put ourselves in a position to keep everyone at bay. Florida had a great chance to score a lot of points in the IM, (Texas) A&M was going to be really good today. We didn’t have a lot of swimmers, but the ones that we did have we wanted in the finals. The kids did a great job of doing that.”
For the first time in Georgia history, the Lady Bulldogs finished one-two in the 3-meter diving. Laura Ryan took gold for the second consecutive year with a Georgia, SEC and Gabrielsen Natatorium record-breaking score of 413.75. That mark was a lifetime best for Ryan and made her the first woman to score over 400 points in an SEC meet. Ann-Perry Blank earned her second medal of the championship with a score of 363.80, also a lifetime best.
“Tonight was so much fun,” Ryan said. “To have both Ann-Perry [Blank] and I light it up is something that I will remember forever.”
She finished second to Florida’s Elizabeth Beisel whose time of 3:59.26 set new SEC and Gabrielsen Natatorium records.
Georgia’s men’s team is also distinguishing itself. The Bulldogs have a solid hold on third place. However, they remain considerably behind Florida (773.5) and Auburn (721.5).
UGA wasn’t the only program having a good night. Florida’s Elizabeth Beisel became a four-time SEC champion in the 400 IM. She edged Georgia’s Melanie Margalis by only .59. Nevertheless, Margalis’ time of 3:59.8 broke her previous Georgia record by almost six seconds and was an NCAA automatic qualifier.
“It’s awesome,” Beisel said of competing against the Bulldogs in Athens. “I’m actually glad it’s here, even though Georgia is one of our biggest rivals. It’s probably one of the best pools we swim in. And both universities stress excellence. Whether you go to Georgia or Florida, you’re expected to swim fast or play football very well.”
