Razorbacks set to compete at SEC Championships

ATHENS, Ga. — The 20th-ranked Arkansas swimming and diving team will begin competition at the Southeastern Conference Swimming and Diving Championships on Wednesday at the University of Georgia’s Gabrielsen Natatorium.

The event runs through Saturday and features six of the nation’s top 25 teams in the latest CollegeSwimming.com/College Swimming Coaches Association of America Division I poll released Tuesday. Georgia tops the poll, followed by Florida at No. 6, Auburn at No. 8, Tennessee at No. 13 and LSU at No. 25. Kentucky, Alabama and South Carolina received votes.

Competition kicks off Wednesday night with the finals of the women’s one-meter diving, followed by the 200-yard medley relay and the 800y freestyle relay.

Starting Thursday, preliminaries will begin each day at 10 a.m. EST, and the finals are slated for 6 p.m.

The Razorbacks are coming off a program-high fifth-place finish at last year’s SEC championships. Arkansas closed the gap with the SEC’s traditional powerhouses, finishing fewer than 100 points behind fourth-place Tennessee, which was ranked No. 7 at the end of last season.

Arkansas senior Yi-Ting Siow is set to defend her 200y breaststroke title from a year ago. Siow became the first Razorback swimmer since Nicola Atkinson in 1992 to win an SEC title with her first-place finish in the 200y breaststroke. This year, her time of 2:09.01 at the Purdue Invitational still stands at the nation’s fastest this season by almost a full second.

ESPNU will air a 90-minute show from the SEC championships on March 2 at 6 p.m. The show will include highlights from the meet and interviews with student-athletes and coaches.

Live streaming of the meet will be available on georgiadogs.com.