2026 SEC Championships: Day 3 Prelims Live Recap ...Middle East

By Sophie Kaufman on SwimSwam

2026 SEC Championships

THURSDAY PRELIMS HEAT SHEETS

THURSDAY PRELIMS SCRATCH REPORT

Good morning, college swimming fans and welcome back for Day 3 of the 2026 SEC Swimming and Diving Championships. This is another prelims session with just three events on the schedule: the 100 butterfly, 400 IM, and 200 freestyle. Still, the nature of the schedule meant some key swimmers had to make tough lineup choices — you can read about that in our morning scratch report but the most important news to know is that Texas’ Baylor Nelson picked the 400 IM over the 200 freestyle, while his teammate Campbell Stoll dropped the 400 IM in favor of the 100 butterfly.

Stoll’s choice means the Longhorn women have the top two seeds in the event as freshman Eva Okaro holds the #1 time with a 50.82. The Texas pair are the only two seeded sub-51 seconds, though Gaby Van Brunt has had an excellent season so far and is seeded at 51.01 and of course, Mizuki Hirai, Tennessee’s big impact midseason addition, is the dark horse here.

After we missed out on a 200 butterfly showdown between Josh Liendo and Luca Urlando yesterday, the pair will renew their rivalry in the 100 butterfly today. Liendo is the firm favorite in this event and, after a day off individual events yesterday, could even produce some fireworks this morning.

Then, the action shits up to the 400 IM. In the women’s event, Tennessee’s 200 butterfly duo Ella Jansen and Emily Brown will look to repeat (or improve) on their 2-3 finish from last night. The men’s race looks to be all about the Longhorns; on the psych sheet they held dive of the top eight times, including the top three.

Freshmen Nikolett Padar and Kennedi Dobson will get set for a showdown tonight in the women’s 200 freestyle. The pair are separated by just .09 seconds on the psych sheet with another four women seeded sub-1:43 as well. The 200 freestyle is set to be a bloodbath at the NCAA Championships, and we’ll get a good first look at that here. The men’s 200 freestyle could be a close race as well. Koby Bujak-Upton, Nikoli Blackman, and Tomas Koski are separated by .12 seconds heading into the meet as the first through third seeds, with Texas sophomore Jacob Wimberly not far off the pace. The 200 freestyle was a weakness for the Tennessee men just a few seasons ago but now, they hold the top two seeds in the event heading into the action this morning.

Women’s 100 Butterfly — Prelims

Top 8: 

Mizuki Hirai disrupted Texas’ grip on the top two seeds this morning, winning heat 8 with a 50.98. It’s a huge lifetime best for Hirai, who arrived at the University of Tennessee this term. Coming into the meet, Hirai held a lifetime best 51.49 that already had her within the all-time top 10 Tennessee women in event history, now she’s moved up to #4 all-time.

The swim also put her as the top qualifier with one heat remaining but another first year, Eva Okaro, had something to say about that. Okaro defended her top seed with a 50.80, shaving two-hundredths from her lifetime best. Okaro has been wreaking havoc on Texas’ all-time lists in the sprint events all season and this swim improves on her status as the fifth-fastest Longhorn in event history.

The Texas women do still have two swimmers in the top three seeds as Campbell Stoll logged a 51.29 for the third seed heading into finals. That said, it’s the Alabama women that have the most swimmers to cheer for in the championship final: Tessa Giele, Emily Jones, and Gaby van Brunt all made it back for the Crimson Tide.

This will also be quite a young championship final. Florida freshmen Beatriz Bezerra and Grace Rabb make it four first-year NCAA swimmers in the final as they qualified in 51.99 and 52.03, respectively.

Last year, it took a 51.81 to make it back for the championship final and none of the top eight swimmers from last year are in the final this year. Only one of the 2025 ‘A’ finalists returned this year, Auburn’s Morgan Carteaux, and she qualified for the ‘B’ final in 11th seed (52.47).

Men’s 100 Butterfly — Prelims

Top 8: 

Let’s all remember that this is still a prelims session as we take in that Liendo went a 43.26 100 butterfly. He jumped on the race, splitting 20.85 at the halfway point and coming home in 22.61 for a 43.26 pool record that was easily the fastest time of the morning. Liendo’s swim broke the 43.38 mark held his now former Canadian national teammate Ilya Kharun set earlier this season and was just three-hundredths from the SEC Championship meet record he swam for the title last season.

This also checks in as the sixth-fastest 100 butterfly performance in history, per USA Swimming’s database. Liendo now owns seven of the top 10 performances in event history.

Top 10 100 Butterfly All-Time Performances (SCY) 

It was Gui Caribe who broke through the 45-second mark first this morning, winning heat five with a season-best 44.94. The floodgates were open after that–Luca Urlando and Kyle Peck both went under that time in the next heat. Urlando, the runner-up in this event last year, won the heat in a 44.72, beating Peck’s 44.88. The swim from Peck is another lifetime best and the .68 second drop from his entry time puts him into Texas all-time top 10 list for the first time. He moved into sixth on the list ahead of teammate Hubert Kos.

Texas put three men into this final as Ksawery Masiuk swam 45.10 to make his first individual SEC championship final and backstroke ace Will Modglin clocked 45.14 for seventh place. Scotty Buff, last year’s bronze medalist, will be outside smoke this evening after making it back for the ‘A’ final in 45.21. He qualified for the ‘A’ final by seven-hundredths ahead of Texas sophomore Garrett Gould.

Women’s 400 IM — Prelims

Top 8: 

After finishing second and third in the women’s 200 butterfly last night, Brown and Jansen take aim at a 1-2 finish in the 400 IM. They’ve put themselves in solid position to do it; Brown won heat five in 4:06.60, posting the fastest time of the session, as Jansen won heat six in 4:07.51 in the second-fastest time.

There were some big drops from seed times this morning but Brown and Jansen both did what they needed to do in order to qualify, keeping something in the tank for this evening. Jansen, the 2025 SEC runner-up, just missed the Tennessee school record at this meet last year with her lifetime best 4:01.61 swim, less than a tenth off Ellen Walshe‘s 4:01.53 program mark.

Texas junior Angie Coe dropped 2.05 seconds from her seed time to qualify for the final in third with a 4:08.44. Her lifetime best is a 4:06.32 from the 2024 NCAA Championships.

While the women’s 100 fly saw no swimmers return from the 2025 final, the women’s 400 IM had a much better retention rate. Jansen, Brown, Campbell Chase, Julie Brousseau, and Sofia Plaza all swam in the ‘A’ final last year. But, with 2025 champion Emma Weyant graduated and Stoll opting for the 100 butterfly, the podium could still see a major turnover.

After finishing 11th last year, South Carolina’s Delaney Franklin qualified for the ‘A’ final in sixth (4:10.23). Her lifetime best is a 4:08.91 from this meet last year and her time this morning was a 2.67 second improvement on her seed time.

Men’s 400 IM — Prelims

Top 8: 

Five of the eight 2025 400 IM ‘A’ finalists return for another round in the championship final this year. Last year, Rex Maurer won for the Longhorns (on the way to an NCAA title in March) and Baylor Nelson finished second for the Aggies.

Now, the two are teammates and have flipped their positions heading into the 2026 championship final. They’re separated by just over a second, with Nelson winning the final heat in 3:39.53 over Maurer’s 3:40.56. They are set up for a fantastic race for gold–the question will be if anyone else can get involved in that hunt.

Georgia sophomore Drew Hitchcock won heat two in 3:40.94, making him the only other swimmer to break 3:41 this morning. Hitchcock finished sixth in this event last year (3:39.98) and has already shown improvement from his debut SEC Championships to this one as he moved from eighth in the 200 fly a year ago to second last night. He qualified just ahead of his teammate, Cale Martter, a transfer from Arizona State. Martter clocked 3:41.09, a season-best swim that moves him into 10th all-time at Georgia.

Over the summer, the Dawgs made a big effort to shore up their IM group as they needed to replace Jake Magahey. By adding names like Martter and freshmen Finn Hammer and Sean Green, the team was likely hoping to qualify three swimmers for the ‘A’ final. They’ve got two (the same as last year) but did get both Hammer (3:43.34) and Green (3:44.57) into the ‘B’ final, an improvement on the zero ‘B’ finalists they had last year.

Instead, it’s unsurprisingly Texas with three ‘A’ finalists in this event as Cooper Lucas returns from his fifth place finish last year, qualifying seventh in 3:41.87. Texas A&M’s Munzy Kabbara made a big leap this year, going from a 15th place finish last year to qualifying for the ‘A’ final in 3:42.14.

Women’s 200 Freestyle — Prelims

Top 8: 

Texas freshman Nikolett Padar was the top seed on the psych sheet and held onto that spot in this morning’s heats. She secured lane four for the championship final with a 1:41.78, slightly off the Texas record 1:41.36 she swam leading off the Longhorns’ 800 freestyle relay earlier in these championships. This is the second sub-1:42 performance of Padar’s career; she had never been under that threshold before this meet and is now the 20th fastest performer all-time courtesy of her relay lead-off.

Last year’s champion Camille Spink qualified second overall after touching second to Padar in the final heat this morning. Spink swam a season-best 1:42.53, much faster than the 1:44.00 she posted in last year’s prelims before her title-winning swim. Last year, Erin Gemmell led the way through prelims with a 1:42.84. Gemmell wasn’t quite that fast this morning but still did enough to return as a championship finalist, posting a 1:43.36. She qualified fifth, six-hundredths behind sophomore teammate Lillie Nesty (1:43.30), making it three Longhorns in the championship final.

Georgia freshman Kennedi Dobson is another swimmer to keep an eye on in this final. She has improved rapidly during her freshman season in Athens and sailed through to tonight’s final with a 1:42.81, about six-tenths from her lifetime best. Dobson anchored Georgia’s 800 freestyle relay in 1:42.06 at the start of the meet.

Earlier this session, the South Carolina women saw Franklin move up from the ‘B’ final to this year’s ‘A’ final in the 400 IM. Amy Riordan made a similar leap for them in this event, improving from her 14th place finish in 2025 (1:45.37) to qualifying for the ‘A’ final in sixth with a lifetime best 1:43.60.

Men’s 200 Freestyle — Prelims

Top 8: 

The men’s 200 freestyle prelims during the 2025 SEC Championships were a bloodbath. A whopping 13 men went sub-1:33 in prelims and it took a 1:32.21 to make it back for the ‘A’ final. This year, 10 were under that 1:33 threshold and it took only a 1:32.53 to make the championship final but there was still plenty of carnage.

This event saw a massive overhaul due to the graduations of Luke Hobson, Chris Guiliano, Jordan Crooks, Charlie Hawke, and Coby Carrozza, just to name a few swimmers. The top returning finishers from last season were fourth-place Tomas Koski and fifth-place Alex Painter. They should have more in store for finals but they nearly missed out, qualifying seventh (1:32.51) and eighth (1:32.53) this morning respectively.

It was Texas junior Camden Taylor that locked down lane four for this evening’s final, winning heat six in 1:31.03. That improves on his lifetime best 1:31.88 and makes him the fifth-fastest 200 freestyler in Texas men’s history. He’s joined by his underclassmen teammates Rafael Fente-Demers (1:31.97) and Wimberly (1:32.12) in the ‘A’ final. Freshman Fente-Damers broke onto Texas’ all-time top 10 list for the first time, tying Carrozza for eighth-fastest all-time now that Taylor has moved up the rankings.

Bujak-Upton qualified second overall in 1:31.38; he’s been as fast as 1:30.77 this season, which ranks him #2 in Tennessee history behind Jordan Crooks. Blackman ranks third in school history but missed the ‘A’ final, qualifying 10th overall in 1:32.89 after adding over a second.

Jere Hribar‘s 17.59 50 freestyle split on LSU’s 200 medley relay was a little overlooked given Liendo’s anchor and Florida’s NCAA record, but he’s demanding attention here. Hribar dropped .94 seconds from his seed time this morning by firing off a 1:31.86. He was 14th in this event a year ago and now will vie for the win in the ‘B’ final; he’s also sure to have Brooks Curry‘s 1:31.30 school record on the mind.

Last year, Taylor (T-9th), Wimberly (13th), and Hribar (14th) all swam in the ‘B’ final.

In heat one, Ahmed Hafnaoui logged a 1:35.11 in his first time swimming the 200-yard freestyle. He finished 29th overall. Newly crowned 1650 freestyle SEC champion Ahmed Jaouadi will compete in the ‘B’ final after qualifying 14th (1:33.34).

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