Florida advances 18 to final session of conference prelims

Freshman Chandler Bray hasn't looked like a rookie at the SEC Championships. He's already a two-time champ on the relays and will swim in a second A-final tonight.

Florida advances 18 to final session of conference prelims

Saturday, February 18, 2017 | Men's Swimming & Diving, Women's Swimming & Diving

The 2017 SEC Championships close tonight in Knoxville

By: Layne Weitzel

DAY 5 PRELIMS RESULTS | DAY 5 FINALS HEAT SHEET

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Saturday morning, the penultimate session of SEC Championships competition, proved to be busy for Florida swimming & diving.

The Gators qualified 14 student-athletes to tonight's meet-closing finals, and four others will swim in the two fastest heats of the 1650 free.

200 back
Underclassmen Georgia Darwent and Sydney Sell swam fast enough to qualify for the B- and C-finals respectively. Darwent touched 16^th overall in a B-cut and season-best 1:56.27, while Sell timed a B-cut of 1:56.35 to finish 18^th.

On the men's side, two Gators will swim tonight in the B-final and another in the C-final. Brennan Balogh finished ninth overall to earn the top seed in the B-final, touching in a B-cut and season-best 1:42.64. Maxime Rooney also put up a B-cut and season-best 1:42.67 to place 10^th overall. Bayley Main, who swam the backstroke leg in last night's first-place 400 medley relay, improved on his seed time to touch in 1:44.56, a season-best and B-cut. He finished 22^nd overall and moves on to the C-final.

Jack Blyzinskyj followed up in 33^rd place with a B-cut 1:46.19.

100 free
Sprint freestyler Sherridon Dressel will represent Florida in tonight's B-final, finishing ninth overall this morning with an improved B-cut 49.11. Kelsey Dambacher also advances to the C-final after placing 24^th overall. She touched in 49.81, a new B-cut and season-best.

Additionally, Tori Bindi, Amelia Maughan and Elisavet Panti saw action in the event for the Gator women. Bindi finished in 29^th with a season-best 50.25. Maughan placed 41^st in 50.92 and Panti 43^rd in 51.02.

On the men's side, Caeleb Dressel looks to repeat as the 100 free champion after earning the top seed during prelims. He recorded an A-cut and season-best 41.51 and cut .09 seconds off his qualifying time.

Enzo Martinez-Scarpe and Khader Baqlah will precede Dressel in the B-final. Martinez-Scarpe tallied a 43.55 time to place 11^th overall and Baqlah a 43.61 to follow in 12^th. Both times were season-bests and B-cuts.

Grady Heath additionally competed in the heats and finished 41^st overall with a season-best 44.82.

200 breast
Hannah Burns grabbed the 24^th overall spot to qualify for the C-final. She swam to a B-cut and season-best 2:14.28. Savanna Faulconer will serve as the finals' second alternate, placing 26^th with an improved B-cut of 2:14.57. Kelly Fertel rounded out the Gator contingent in 30^th, timing 2:16.03.

Tonight will be the second night in a row that freshman Chandler Bray will compete in an individual A-final, having placed seventh in yesterday's 100 breast race. Bray posted a season-best B-cut of 1:55.92 this morning to earn the 8-seed in the A-final.

Ross Palazzo will join Bray in the finals, qualifying for the B-final at 11^th overall. Palazzo cut over three seconds off his seed time to finish in 1:56.39, a B-cut.

Men's platform
Like the women yesterday, the men have dived off the towers just once prior to today at the Georgia Tech Invitational in November.

Samuel Smith, who didn't even compete on platform at that meet, still earned a spot in tonight's finals with a zone-qualifying, career-high score of 367.45 and sixth-place finish. Teammates Dalton Goss and Dylan Power both placed in the top 24 and will contribute points to Florida. Goss finished 18^th with a season-best 285.25 score, and Power followed in 19^th with a 283.95 score.

The first of eight 1650 free heats began earlier today at 2:40 p.m., and the ninth and tenth heats will swim with the other finals events tonight. The SEC Championships will wrap up at 6 p.m. with finals for the 200 back, 100 free, 200 breast, men's platform, 1650 free and 400 free relay. After that, the men's and women's team champions will be crowned.

Results can be viewed live on utsports.com and will be posted in full on FloridaGators.com at the conclusion of each day of competition. The meet will be streamed live on SEC Network +.

Fans planning to attend any day of the meet are encouraged to visit Tennessee's meet information page for more on tickets, parking, the clear bag policy, etc.

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