2012-13 College Swimming & Diving Honors
Most Exciting Upset Men
Tennessee Media Relations
January 26, 2013, Knoxville, TN In the very first event, the Volunteers provided an early sense of how the meet would play out with a blistering 1:27.12 and four second margin of victory in the 200 Medley Relay. Georgia would answer with their first win of the day with a equally impressive showing in the mile to take a 21-15 lead heading into the 200 free. With three athletes deadlocked at the 150, it was Sam Rairden, (pictured right) who broke away to lead a onetwo finish for the Vols. For the Tennessee Junior, it was part of a perfect day as he was part of both victorious relays as well as another individual win in the 100 Free. Perhaps his win in the 100 was a solid sign that the rebuilding of the
Tennessee men’s program the was well under way. The men were simply dominant on this day in taking both relays, the 50,100 & 200. Rairden led the quartet that swept the 100 with a near personal best time of 43.97. (Less than a month later, he would swim a :42.64 at the SEC Championships.) One other key race of the day was the 100 backstroke which possessed enough close races to make the difference early in the meet. Volunteer Sean Lehane broke away from a dead-even tie at the 50 prevent UGA from a possible lead. Going into the day, Tennessee was unranked. This meet brought these two programs much closer as they would finish just one spot
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apart at the SEC championships. The meet put them in the CSCAA rankings at 11th with Georgia remaining at 12th both before and after the dual meet. In late March at the 2013 NCAAs, Georgia would finish 10th and ahead of Tennessee who finished at 16th. As both coaches were complimentary of each other in their post meet comments, Coach Kredich said of his own team, “Today, the coaches didn't have to do too much guiding. The team really took over.”