Elan Daley made a triumphant return to championship swimming, securing a coveted National Championship Qualifying Time as her University of Tennessee "Lady Volunteers" claimed an impressive second-place finish at the SEC Swimming and Diving Championships.
The prestigious short-course yards meet, held in Knoxville, saw Tennessee amass a formidable 647 points, ultimately finishing behind the powerhouse Texas Longhorns, who secured the title with 718 points. For Daley, who has battled a series of injuries that have hampered her collegiate career, this championship marked her long-awaited debut at the highly competitive SEC level.
Daley’s performances underscored her resilience and talent. She began her campaign in the Women’s 200-Yard Freestyle preliminaries, where she touched the wall in 1:46.80, just shy of her personal best of 1:46.46, finishing 25th in a stacked field. In the Women’s 50-Yard Freestyle preliminaries, Daley again demonstrated her speed, clocking 22.69 for 30th place, narrowly missing her personal best of 22.52.
However, it was in the Women’s 100-Yard Freestyle that Daley truly excelled. In the preliminaries, she delivered a sensational personal best time of 48.57 seconds, securing 14th place and, crucially, earning an NCAA National Championship Qualifying Time. This performance propelled her into the Consolation Final, where she once again lowered her personal best, clocking an even faster 48.48 seconds to finish third in the heat and 11th overall – her second National Championship Qualifying Time of the meet.
Daley’s stellar individual achievement, combined with Tennessee’s strong team showing, signals a formidable end to a challenging season for the Bermudian international as she now looks ahead to the ultimate collegiate stage.
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