Tennessee’s swimming and diving teams collected seven medals on the fifth day of the SEC Championships at the Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center in Knoxville. The Lady Vols were highlighted by Camille Spink, who won her third consecutive gold medal in the 50-yard freestyle. Spink became the first woman to achieve this feat since Erika Brown from 2018 to 2020. She set a new SEC Championship record with a time of 20.87 seconds, also breaking her own school record.
Spink also contributed to Tennessee’s victory in the women’s 200-yard freestyle relay alongside Mizuki Hirai, Julianna Bocska, and Jillian Crooks. Their time of 1:26.27 was just shy of breaking the program record set in 2020. This win marked the Lady Vols’ 14th medal in this event over the past 15 years.
On the men’s side, Gui Caribe finished second in a close race for the 50-yard freestyle, missing out on gold by four-hundredths of a second to Josh Liendo from Florida. Caribe’s time was 18.46 seconds, earning him his second silver medal at these championships.
Freshman Gabe Nunziata took silver in the men’s 200-yard breaststroke with a school-record time of 1:50.59, giving Tennessee its first medal in that event since 2023 and best result since Lyubomir Epitropov’s gold in 2021.
Ella Jansen placed third in the women’s 500-yard freestyle with a personal and school-best time of 4:34.10, securing her first medal in that event for Tennessee.
The men’s team earned bronze medals both in platform diving—where Bennett Greene posted a score placing him fifth all-time at Tennessee—and in the men’s 200-yard freestyle relay (Caribe, Pedro Sansone, Nikoli Blackman, Koby Bujak-Upton), whose finish moved them into third place historically for UT.
In total, four school records were broken during Friday’s finals session and four new top-ten times were recorded by Tennessee swimmers.
According to current standings after five days at SECs, Texas leads both men’s and women’s team rankings; Tennessee is second among women and third among men.
“Camille Spink continues to establish herself as one of the premier sprint freestyle swimmers of all-time,” stated team officials regarding her performance. “Spink becomes the first female swimmer to win the event in three-straight years since former Lady Vol Erika Brown did so from 2018-20.”
The evening saw participation from fifteen Vols and Lady Vols across A, B, and C finals.
Other notable performances included Jillian Crooks finishing sixth overall in women’s A Final for the 50 Free; Nikoli Blackman joining Caribe as an A finalist on men’s side; Koby Bujak-Upton setting a new school record en route to eighth place finish in men’s final for the 500 Free; while Hannah Marinovich and Emelie Fast represented Tennessee as C finalists for women’s breaststroke events.
