Michael Chadwick didn’t want to do the dishes at his apartment, so he swam faster than his roommate Carter Griffin in the 200-yard freestyle finals at the SEC championships Thursday night. The juniors on the Missouri swim team finished third and sixth respectively, with freshman Mikel Schreuders coming in right behind Chadwick in fourth place.
“We made a bet before the race in the ready room, and we said, ‘alright, loser does the dishes for a week,’” Chadwick said. “So I wasn’t about to lose that. I think he will actually live up to (the bet), we do that a lot for races to get each other going.”
Chadwick not only beat his roommate, but he also beat his own school record, posting 1:34.11. Schreuders was close behind with 1:34.35 and Griffin rounded out the trio with 1:34.48.
Despite having a sluggish race in the preliminaries this morning, Chadwick came back with a satisfying finish. He said the 200-yard freestyle is a hit or miss for him, but he could not be happier with a podium finish.
“I took it out a lot faster than this morning too, which made it a lot more fun,” Chadwick said. “I just needed to jump the gun the first 50 and take control of the race a little bit. It was a smarter race than this morning.”
The race was the last of the evening in an intense third day of at the SEC Championship. Starting out the night was the 400 IM final, with sophomore Sharli Brady placing eighth and posting a time of 4:13.71. Junior Ellie Suek placed third in the C final, and 19th overall, with a season best time of 4:15.98.
Over in the men’s 400 IM final, senior Daniel Graviss swam a 3:47.07 to place tenth overall. In the women’s 100-yard butterfly, senior Anna Patterson placed ninth with a time of 52.86, 0.01 faster than her morning preliminary swim.
The men’s 100-yard butterfly featured Florida’s Caeleb Dressel, who broke the American record in the 50-yard freestyle yesterday. He missed the American record in the 100-yard butterfly by 0.7 seconds, but still set a new SEC record with a time of 44.80. Missouri’s junior Martin Wallace placed twenty-fourth with a time of 48.05 and junior Andrew Sansoucie placed eighth with a time of 46.39.
Over on the diving side, Missouri’s Kendra Kieser and Alexa Beckwith, both sophomores, placed seventh and fifth in the three meter diving finals, respectively.
With the men’s 200-yard freestyle rounding out the night, Chadwick said having three Missouri swimmers in the A final not only helped the men’s team for points but also for relaxation.
“It was a comfort in the ready room when I look over and Carter and Mikel are right there talking and laughing, sooner or later we had all the guys talking or laughing with us so it was a cool feeling,” he said.
Schreuders, the 17-year-old freshman from Aruba, said having two other teammates in his race helps his energy.
“I think it’s amazing because normally when I swim I don’t have this big of a team behind me,” Schreuders said. “So being in the final, and having two teammates also in the final with me is like an extra boost.”
As for the 0.24 seconds between Chadwick’s new school record and Schreuders’ final time, Chadwick is sure his name will not be up on the board for long, saying that Missouri fans have not seen the best of his young teammate yet. Schreuders wants to beat that record and uses it as motivation for the next couple of races as the Tigers look to finish their season strong.
“My goal was to try to beat his record because I know his event is not the 200 and mine is, but now I know that he just made it faster,” Schreuders said. “It gets me more excited to swim faster.”
The final two days of the SEC championships feature the 200-yard butterfly, 100-yard backstroke, 100-yard breaststroke, 400-yard medley relay and men’s platform diving Friday, and the 200-yard backstroke, 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard breaststroke, 1650-yard free and women’s platform diving Saturday.