{"id":296775,"date":"2018-02-17T05:15:57","date_gmt":"2018-02-17T12:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=296775"},"modified":"2018-02-20T15:37:28","modified_gmt":"2018-02-20T22:37:28","slug":"at-sec-championships-hugo-gonzalez-and-erika-brown-become-national-favorites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/at-sec-championships-hugo-gonzalez-and-erika-brown-become-national-favorites\/","title":{"rendered":"At SEC Championships, Hugo Gonzalez and Erika Brown Become National Favorites"},"content":{"rendered":"

By David Rieder.<\/em><\/p>\n

Neither Erika Brown<\/strong>\u00a0nor Hugo Gonzalez<\/strong> has ever scored a single individual point at the NCAA championships. During her freshman campaign at Tennessee, Brown was a relay-only swimmer at the national meet. Gonzalez, meanwhile, won three World Junior titles over the summer, but before this week at the SEC championships, he had never even put on a racing suit for a short course yards race.<\/p>\n

The conference titles each of them won Friday evening are just that\u2014regional victories that won\u2019t matter at the next meet up. But the numbers on the scoreboard say that each one achieved something special, and as the saying goes, the scoreboard never lies.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez came up first, and he never trailed in the men\u2019s 400 IM final. He worried that the field might run him down on the freestyle leg, but no one could get any closer than two seconds. His final time: 3:35.76, a new Texas A&M pool record.<\/p>\n

Pool records, of course, oftentimes mean nothing, depending on who has swum what events in a particular pool. But in this case, the pool record belonged to Tyler Clary<\/strong>, the future U.S. Olympian, and his mark of 3:35.98 was an American record when he swam the time back at the 2009 NCAA championships.<\/p>\n

In the nine years since, only Chase Kalisz<\/strong> had gone any faster, taking the American record down to 3:33.42. But Gonzalez, the teenager from Spain, now ranked No. 2, faster than Clary or Ryan Lochte<\/strong> or Michael Phelps<\/strong> ever swam.<\/p>\n

There were signs that Gonzalez could excel during his first college championship season, particularly his 4:14.65 in the 400-meter IM at the World Junior Championships in August and then a strong regular season with the Tigers, but 3:35? That would have been far-fetched.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was nervous before the race,\u201d Gonzalez admitted, \u201cbut I think the moment I touched the water, all the things that I was thinking went away, and I could just focus on my race.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Simple enough, if you can pull it off\u2014which he did.<\/p>\n
Yes, the SEC championships are the first taper meet in yards Gonzalez has ever swum, so the times don\u2019t mean all that much for him, but he knows the names of Clary, Lochte and Phelps\u2014and he\u2019s faster than any of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thought of that gives me motivation to go now to the NCAAs and not be afraid of the people I\u2019m swimming against,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
One event later, Brown became only the second woman in history to break 50 seconds in the women\u2019s 100 fly. After her breakthrough at the mid-season Tennessee Invitational, where Brown posted a nation-leading time of 50.33, she joined some pretty exclusive company in the sub-50 club.<\/p>\n
Natalie Coughlin<\/strong> never swam that fast, her improvement plateauing at 50.01 in 2002. Kelsi Worrell<\/strong> first got under the vaunted barrier 13 years later, eventually lowering the American record to 49.43, and now, right behind her on the all-time list is Brown, at 49.85.<\/p>\n
Remember, this is a swimmer who began the season having never even broken 55 in the 100 fly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really exciting,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI had the number 49 in my head. I knew I wanted to be there, and just to touch the wall and see that and validate that. It\u2019s really exciting, and it\u2019s good to know that the hard work pays off.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The race put Brown in a position she\u2019s not used to: Squarely in the spotlight. After winning her first individual SEC title in the 50 free Thursday, she remarked, \u201cI don\u2019t really want to steal the attention for myself, but it\u2019s more exciting for the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yes, her team is benefitting\u2014the Volunteers sit third, just a point-and-a-half behind Georgia with two days of competition to go\u2014but this moment belonged to Brown. Minutes after the race, Worrell tweeted at Brown a \u201cwelcome to the club.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Thank you so much\ud83d\ude04\ud83d\udc95<\/p>\n
— Erika Brown (@erikabrown27) February 17, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n