King ties for first in SEC 50 freestyle

Michele King swam the third fastest time in the country this year in the 50 freestyle preliminaries than nearly matched it in winning the final Thursday night at the SEC Swimming and Diving Championships at Auburn, Ala.

King’s time of 21.89 in the prelims put her on the NCAA “A” qualifying list. With a 21.9 in the final, she tied Florida’s Anna-Mar Botek for first.

King had tied for fourth last year.

“I’m getting sick of tying,” she said. “I would’ve liked to have gone faster today, but I’m happy. I was very anxious to swim because this is my first time seeded first, and it was a little intimidating. To bring a championship to Tennessee is what I wanted.”

King made UT a repeat champ in the 50, Olympian Christine Magnuson having won the event last year.

Tennessee has plenty of ground to make up in the team competition. The Lady Vols are fourth with 155.5 points, trailing leader Florida with 313.

Lady Vol freshman diver Jodie McGroarty finished fourth in the one-meter (302.40) to qualifying for a NCAA Zone berth.

The Lady Vols were fourth in the 200 freestyle relay, the team of King, Jenny Connolly, Abbie Alton and Brittany Nauta going 1:29.19.

The Vols held down second place, but Auburn is swimming farther away from the field.

With a sweep of the first four places in the 50 freestyle, the Tigers have 329.5 points, ahead of UT’s 260 and 246 for Florida.

Geoff Sanders finished fourth in the 500 freestyle, and broke UT’s oldest school record. His time of 4:16.2 passed the 4:16.45 Melvin Stewart swam in 1990.

Tennessee’s divers contributed points. Freshman Ryan Helms finished fifth (404.40), Michael Wright seventh (399.70) and Michael Muscari eighth (371.10).

The Vols finished second in the 200 freestyle relay. The team of Jonas Persson, Michael DeRocco, Nolan Morrell and Barry Murphy came in at 1:17.39, behind Auburn’s 1:15.47.

In the 50, UT came in with the three fastest times, butPersson managed a 19.70 for UT’s best finish, sixth.