Melissa Cowen achieved Vanderbilt swimming’s top individual result so far at the SEC Championships, taking 26th place in the 200 breaststroke. Both Cowen and Amelia Harper also entered the program’s all-time top 10 list in their respective events on Friday at the Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center in Knoxville.
Cowen narrowly missed qualifying for the final in the 200 breaststroke, finishing just three-tenths of a second away with a time of 2:12.92. She returned later to lead off Vanderbilt’s 200 free relay with a split of 23.11 seconds, which now ranks fourth all-time for the Commodores and met the CSCAA National Invitational Championship B cut.
Head coach Jeremy Organ commented on Cowen’s performance: “Today was a day we were kind of looking forward to, we thought we had a shot at getting into that 200 breast final. Mel had a good swim and just missed out, but she came back with a good lead off to a strong relay that capped off the night for us. We feel good about tomorrow. We’ve had some strong swims all week, we need to continue that in the morning.
“Last one, fast one, let’s go!”
Harper joined Cowen among Vanderbilt’s best-ever performances by recording a personal-best time of 2:16.13 in the 200 breaststroke prelims, which also met NIC B standard requirements.
In other results from Friday:
– Aubrey Hull posted her collegiate-best time of 23.64 seconds during preliminary heats of the 50 freestyle.
– Madelyn Porter finished her season-best time in the 500 freestyle with a mark of 4:54.88 and earned her second NIC B cut at this meet.
– The team’s time of 1:32.86 in the 200 free relay was their fastest this season and is ninth-fastest ever for Vanderbilt.
– Taylor Carey (2:18.35), Emily Constable (2:17.17), and Bailey Ratzburg (2:18.25) all set season or career-best times in the 200 breaststroke; both Ratzburg and Carey made their first NIC B cuts this year.
– Elayne Chen swam her best collegiate time in the 500 free with a finish of 5:04.90.
– Ava Allingham set another career record in the morning session’s time trial for the second consecutive day, completing the 100 fly in under one minute.
The SEC Championships will conclude Saturday, beginning with preliminary heats at 8:30 a.m., followed by finals scheduled for late afternoon.
