Lady Vols beaming about second-place finish at SEC championships

During a good part of the SEC swimming and diving championships Saturday night, second seemed to be the theme for the Tennessee Lady Vols.

A second-place finish in the team standings behind Georgia seemed pretty certain early on, and Lindsay Gendron finished a respectable second behind four-time SEC champion Wendy Trott in the evening's first final — the 1,650-yard freestyle.

And in the women's 200 butterfly at Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center, Lady Vol Kelsey Floyd was in second as well as she began her last 50 yards.

But Floyd decided to give the Tennessee women a change of pace — literally. She was able to pick up enough speed to overtake Teresa Crippen of Florida and win with a time of 1 minute, 54.65 seconds.

"I figured that it was close," said an excited Floyd afterward. "I know when I put my mind to it, I can finish like nobody's business. I just refused to lose really in that last 50."

The Lady Vols ended up with two firsts on the night, as diver Tori Lamp won the 10-meter platform with 335.50 points over five dives. But victory did not come easy, as the former Bearden High standout had to score 86.40 points on her final dive to overtake Vennie Dantin of Auburn by seven points.

"I was worried," Lamp said. "I had to go out there and do my best. She performed so well. I had to do even better."

The first-place finishes helped move Tennessee a little closer to Georgia's 781 points. With 629.5 points, the Lady Vols finished ahead of third-place Florida (566), Auburn (509.5) and LSU (347).

Tennessee women's coach Matt Kredich said he was overall very pleased with the program's first second-place finish since the 1989-90 season.

"It's a big step forward for our program and we're really excited about finishing second," he said.

Gendron's second in the 1,650 (16:01.38) was her third runner-up finish of the meet, as she also finished second in the 500 and 200 freestyle to different swimmers each time.

If a decathlon-like event existed in swimming in which one needed to be good in multiple events without being great in any of them, Gendron might be suited for it.

But she still felt proud with how she did in each event this week.

"I've been very happy with all my results in the finals," she said. "I wish I could have gotten first obviously, but there's things I can change for next time."

Among the other Lady Vol finishers in the finals Saturday, Kate McNeilis had a fourth in the 200 back (1:54.26), Caroline Simmons finished sixth in the women's 100 free (49.10), Kirstyn Colon finished seventh in the 200 breaststroke, and Gaby Trudeau finished third in the platform diving (289.10).

Also, the 400 free relay team of Jenny Connolly, Floyd, Simmons and Gendron finished third (3:15.09) with the third-fastest American time this year.