2025 SEC Swimming and Diving Championships
SECs was historically fast last week – the 500 free was phenomenally deep, three men’s NCAA relay records were smashed (1 2 3) and there were new championship records in 20 events. With all of that, it’s inevitable that some great swims slipped through – here are 11 of the best (we couldn’t cut it to 10):
Camden Taylor – Texas – Men’s 200 IM
Taylor has been more of a sprint freestyler in previous years – he swam the 50/100/200 free at Big-12s last year and was on all three freestyle relays at NCAAs. The decision to swim the 200IM over the 50 free was perhaps a little surprising, even though he’d set a PB of 1:44.47 two weeks ago at the Jill Sterkel Classic. He dropped that down to 1:42.64 to sneak into the ‘A’ final, where he was faster still to go 1:41.58 and likely punch his ticket to NCAAs.
Lillie Nesty – Texas – Women’s 500 free
Nesty has been having a good year for Texas in their first season in the SEC, where her father Anthony Nesty has been Florida’s head coach since 2006, and continued that in the 500 free ‘B’ final where she went 4:36.72. That was a two-second drop from her PB at midseason, would have put her fifth in the ‘A’ final and will be a lock for NCAA qualification. The Longhorn also had a big swim on the 800 free relay, splitting 1:41.70 on the second leg to put Texas into the lead – 1.5 seconds under her best time from the Eddie Reese showdown just last month and the third-fastest split in the field behind Camille Spink and Bella Sims. Her most surprising swim of the meet came in its final event – she went 46.82 to register Texas’ fastest split in the 400 free relay.
Carson Hick – Kentucky – Men’s 500 free
Hick may not be the best-known distance freestyler out of Kentucky, but he had a strong freshman year which ended with him finishing just outside the points in the mile at NCAAs. He came into SECs with a PB in the 500 of 4:15 from conference champs last year, and dropped that to 4:11.85 in prelims and then 4:10.89 to finish second in the ‘B’ final. This was the second year of big drops at SECs for Hick – he went from a 4:22 to a 4:15 at last year’s meet. Despite his huge improvement, Hick finished in the same position this year and last at SECs – courtesy of a historically fast 500 free this time around.
Lainy Kruger – Florida – Women’s 200 IM
Kruger came into SECs with a PB of 1:56.29 from mid-season and beat that time in both heats and finals. After going 1:55.66 in prelims, Kruger exploded to win the ‘B’ final in 1:54.06, a time that would have put her fourth in the ‘A’ final behind teammate Bella Sims and is only four-tenths off the NCAA ‘A’ cut. Most of her drop in the final came in the breaststroke and free – she had the fastest back half, and one of only two sub-60 along with Piper Enge.
Scotty Buff – Florida – Men’s 50 free
Florida has a lot of strong sprint freestylers at the moment, but before this season Buff probably wouldn’t have been on the 200 free relay. The loss of Adam Chaney has helped his case, but he’s become a key part of that based on merit. He split 18.36 as Florida swam under their own NCAA record in finishing second to Tennessee, and followed that up with an 18.73 to finish 6th in the individual 50 free – a huge drop from his previous PB of 19.30. He’d already swum a fly PB split of 19.40 on the second-place medley relay, but his newfound top-tier sprint freestyle ability is a welcome boon for a Florida team who lost both Adam Chaney and Macguire McDuff this year.
Lamar Taylor – Tennessee – Men’s 400 free relay
Taylor, who transferred to Tennessee for his final year from Division II Henderson State, had a very good meet at SECs. He set PBs in each of his individual events, breaking 19 in the 50 free (18.82) and 42 in the 100 free (41.97). More impressively, he had big swims on Tennessee’s two record-breaking relays, splitting 18.25 as they broke 1:13 in the 200 free relay, and a monumental 40.65 (19.02 to feet!) to close out the meet in the 400 free relay. That was over a second quicker than his flat start bet from earlier in the session, which was already a three-tenth PB. Two years ago NC State’s NCAA record of 2:44.31 seemed almost impregnable – if Taylor and the rest of Tennessee’s stars can drop further at NCAAs they could make it look pedestrian.
Luke Nebrich – Missouri – Men’s 50 free
Nebrich came into his freshman season with a PB of 20.28, so had already had a huge year when he dropped that down to 19.47 at the UGA Fall Invitational. His next act was even more impressive, taking off another 4 tenths to go 19.05 and then 19.02 at SECs – times on the edge of the ‘B’ final at NCAAs – and was 19.10 leading off Mizzou’s 200 free relay. Coming in as an unranked recruit and then being right in the mix for points in the sprint freestyles as a freshman is huge for the Tigers, especially when he puts down 18.4/41.4 relay splits.
Connor Foote – Texas A&M – Men’s 50 free
Foote likely isn’t a name you’d be too familiar with in the sprint freestyles, but should bring in some precious sprint points for the Aggies in March. He broke 19 seconds at SECs last year in going 18.97, giving his at-the-time coach Jason Calanog the distinction of being (we believe) the first coach to get both a College and High school swimmer under 19 seconds in the 50, having coached Caeleb Dressel to an 18.94 at just 17. Foote has continued that progress under new coach Blaire Anderson, and whilst he had several great swims, his best of the meet came in the 50 free where he dropped three-tenths of a second to go 18.67, which puts him right in the mix for an ‘A’ final in March. Also one to watch is his teammate Ben Scholl – he broke 19 for the first time in the ‘B’ final to almost certainly qualify for NCAAs.
Campbell Stoll – Texas – Women’s 200 fly
We could probably include any of Stoll’s individual swims here, along with her 50.25 fly split on Texas’ DQ’ed medley relay, but the 200 fly was her best. Her PB before SECs was 1:53.84 from NCAAs last year, but dropped over two seconds from that to go 1:51.64 and rank third in the NCAA this season. She was only fourth at halfway, but nearly matched teammate Emma Sticklen’s back-half split to come back in 58.31 and put herself in with a shout for a podium next month.
Peyton Curry – South Carolina – Women’s 50 Free
Curry, a senior from South Carolina, has swum relays at NCAAs the last two years but never qualified individually. That may change this year, after she smashed her 22.46 PB from just last month with a 22.07 to make the ‘A’ final, and clipped it again to go 22.01 for fifth. Prior to this season, her PB was 22.77 from back in 2021 – something has obviously clicked for her this year. She’ll have two swims at NCAAs as well if she makes it, as she swam 48.45 in the 100 to grab a ‘B’ cut.
Nikola Simic – LSU – Men’s 1650 free
Simic is just a freshman but is a near-lock for NCAA qualification – he’s ranked 18th and should almost certainly qualify for the meet now. Given his nine-second improvement since midseason, dropping from 14:56 to 14:47.23, he’s in a good position to turn that into points after it took 14:47.66 to score last year. LSU is having a lot of success with internationals at the moment – if Simic and fellow underclassmen Jovan Lekic follow the trajectory of their teammate Jere Hribar they could make some noise come March.
