AUBURN, Ala. – Auburn head coach Gary Taylor challenged the women's team Thursday night, and the Tigers responded Friday with their best performance of the week at the SEC Women's Championships in Athens, Georgia.
"I really challenged the women to step up on Friday morning and really attack the races," Taylor said. "I thought they stepped up and did a good job giving themselves opportunities to swim tonight."
Auburn started strong in the prelims with 10 swimmers qualifying for finals, including six freshmen. Hannah Ownbey, one of those freshmen, made the A-Final for the 400 IM while senior Jewels Harris made the A-Final for the 100 butterfly.
In the nightcap, Harris and Ownbey both swam lifetime bests in their respective A-Finals. Harris finished fifth in the 100 fly, and Ownbey took sixth in the 400 IM.
As a team, the Tigers moved up another spot to ninth with 384 points for the week.
The men's and women's teams were both in action Friday at the SEC Diving Championships in Columbia, Missouri. Sophomore Skip Donald led the men's side on 3-meter, and all four women scored points for Auburn in the platform event.
DAY 3 HIGHLIGHTS
For Ownbey, it was the second straight day she swam in an A-Final and the second straight day she put her name in Auburn's record books. With a finals time of 4:09.64, the freshman moved into sixth all-time among Auburn swimmers in the 400 IM.
"Obviously two for two on A-Finals," Taylor said. "I thought Hannah Ownbey had a really gritty 400 IM – a lifetime best, top 10 performance for the program."
Three other Tigers made the C-Final for the 400 IM, including freshmen Colby Hurt and Meghan Lee. But it was redshirt junior Devan Sweeney who led the way with a lifetime best (4:12.46) to finish second in the C-Final and place 18th overall. Hurt swam a lifetime best in the final to place 19th, and Lee, who had a lifetime best in prelims, finished 21st overall in the finals.
Like Ownbey, Harris also made her mark in the 100 butterfly, moving up to seventh in Auburn history with a lifetime-best swim of 52.23. The senior was joined in the finals by freshmen Abby Gibbons and Elysse Pardus who finished 19th and 23rd respectively.
Senior Carly Cummings made the finals for the second straight night. This time it was in the 100 breaststroke where she took fifth in the B-Final, placing 13th overall, with a time of 1:00.36.
Freshmen Brynn Curtis and Kensley Merritt both made their SEC finals debut, swimming in the C-Final of the 100 breaststroke (Curtis) and the B-Final of the 100 backstroke (Merritt). Merritt also led off the 200 medley relay with a lifetime best in the 100 back (53.24). The Tigers won the first relay heat and finished ninth overall.
The headliner amongst the Auburn divers Friday was Donald who set a new personal best with 360.10 points to finish 10th in the 3-meter prelims.
"Skip was awesome today," head diving coach Jeff Shaffer said. "To think that a couple weeks ago he wasn't training because of his finger and for him to put together a list like that against some really tough competition, I was really proud to see him do that."
On the women's side, sophomore Gretchen Wensuc also took 10th in prelims for platform with a team-best 235.05 points. Wensuc, Ashlynn Sullivan, Maia Goldstein and Kendall Minter all finished in the top 16 to close out the women's portion of the SEC Diving Championships.
QUOTEABLE
Head coach Gary Taylor
On the C-Final for the 400 IM…
"I thought Devan Sweeney had a fantastic morning swim and then comes back tonight to lead those three women in the C-Final with a lifetime-best performance at 4:12. She was followed by Colby Hurt, who also had a really good swim tonight to go 4:12, a new lifetime best for her."
On mindset heading into the final day…
"My famous statement is champions come out to play on Saturday. Obviously, we're not in a run to win the meet, however, this is where you find out a lot about your team. How do we get going on that third morning and show good grit, good effort, good energy in the stands and on the deck? We've got some great opportunities to get some points tomorrow night and make a run at finishing another spot or two higher."
Head diving coach Jeff Shaffer
On women's platform…
"One of our goals coming into this meet was everybody score. By Kendall (Minter) being 16th, everybody scored – so that was positive. I thought we competed really well today. Each of them had one dive that was a little bit weak that could've maybe made a difference, but overall I thought they competed a lot better today than they did yesterday and are continuing to develop their competitiveness."
UP NEXT
The SEC Women's Swimming Championships will wrap up Saturday in Athens with the 200 backstroke, 100 freestyle, 200 breaststroke, 200 butterfly, 1650 freestyle and 400 freestyle relay. Prelims are slated to begin at 9 a.m. CT.
Saturday also marks the final day for the SEC Diving Championships. The only event remaining is the men's platform, which will begin with prelims at 11 a.m. CT.
Harris, Ownbey lead strong Day 3 performance at SECs
