McCool Earns Florida's First Gold Medal Of The SEC Championships

Wednesday, February 17

Athens, GA

All Day

Florida Gators

SEC Championships (Swimming)

McCool Earns Florida's First Gold Medal Of The SEC Championships

Wednesday, February 17, 2021 | Women's Swimming & Diving

Gators place second in the 800 Free Relay

By: Bridgette Underwood

ATHENS, Ga.- No. 5 Florida's women got going with diver Ashley McCool who won the 1-Meter diving competition. On the swimming side, the 800 free relay team of Talia Bates, Katie Mack, Nikki

Miller, and Kathleen Golding placed second on the opening day.

The quartet of Bates, Mack, Miller, and Golding placed second in the 800 Free Relay with a time of 6:58.91, which is the second fastest time in the NCAA right now. That time also placed the relay team second on the Florida all-time list.

In the 200-medley relay, the young team of Lain Shahboz, Cecilia Porter, Kenady Beil, and Katie Mack placed sixth with a time of 1:37.83.

After the1-Meter diving prelims Ashley McCool was in fifth place heading into the finals and ended up placing first with 334.35 points. Earning the first gold medal for the Gators.

Quotables

Head Coach Jeff Poppell

On his overall thoughts on the team's performance today…

"It was a great first night for the Gators! Our 200-medley relay consisted of three freshmen and a sophomore, first timers at this meet, and I think they competed very well for their first experience. Our 800 freestyle relay team posted the 2nd fastest time all-time at UF and with the A cut qualified automatically for NCAAs. Those performances were exactly what we needed to provide momentum going into tomorrow's individual events. Should be a fun week!"

Diving Coach Bryan Gillooly

On his over thoughts on the team's performance today…

"Huge win for Ashley to start off the meet. I'm am very happy for her. Great win for the Gators team. We are looking to build on this momentum for the next three days of competition."

Standings

1. Texas A&M - 185
2. Florida - 151
3. Kentucky - 145
4. Arkansas - 137
5.Alabama - 132
6. LSU - 121
7. Tennessee - 119
8. Missouri - 118
9. South Carolina - 83
10. Auburn - 74
11. Georgia - 71
12. Vanderbilt - 64

What's Next

Florida will be back in the pool on Thursday morning with the first session of preliminaries.

The day will start-off at 10 a.m. ET with the 500 free, followed by the 200 IM and the 50 free.

The finals for the respective events and the 200-free relay will begin at 6 p.m. ET.
Diving will begin at 12 p.m. with the women's 3-Meter prelims followed by the men's 1-Meter prelims.
Finals will begin at 7 p.m. with the women's 3-Meter final, followed by the men's 1-Meter final.