2024 SEC SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- February 19 – February 24, 2024
- James E. Martin Aquatic Center — Auburn, AL
- Defending Champions: Women: Florida (1x) Men: Florida (11x)
- Start Times (CT): 9:30 am prelims/5:30 pm finals
- Championship Central
- 2023 SEC Championships Box Score
- Major Conference Roster Limits and Scoring Rules
- Psych Sheets
- Live Results
- Live Video (SEC+ Network)
- Day 1 Diving Recap
- Day 1 Finals Live Recap
- Day 2 Prelims Live Recap | Day 2 Finals Live Recap
- Day 3 Prelims Live Recap | Day 3 Finals Live Recap
- Day 4 Prelims Live Recap | Day 4 Finals Live Recap
Tennessee sophomore Martin Espernberger is one of the breakout stories of the 2023-2024 season.
An Austrian by birth, Espernberger had a nice freshman season. He finished 4th at the SEC Championships in the 200 fly, qualified for the NCAA Championships, tied for 8th in prelims, lost a swim-off, and on his third 200 fly of the day slid to 16th place. An Honorable Mention All-American in his first NCAA Championship meet – a worthwhile conclusion to a rookie season.
But this year, he went from a guy on the periphery to a central figure in the 200 fly, which continued into Friday when he won the SEC title in the 200 fly. His 1:50.86 shaved .07 seconds off Camden Murphy’s Pool Record, and climbs to 7th in the NCAA so far this season.
What he’s done in long course, which included a best time of 1:54.69 at the US Open in December.
In fact, after coming into the season with a lifetime best of 1:57.36, he’s been 1:55-or-better five times this season. That includes at last week’s World Championships, where he went 1:55.16 for a bronze medal.
For his efforts, he was named the SEC Scholar Athlete of the Year for men’s swimming & diving, boasting a 3.93 GPA while majoring in electrical engineering.
All of that is great and exciting, though not entirely unique.
What makes Espernberger’s case so curious is the degree to which he specializes in one, and only one, event, the 200 fly.
Where the NCAA is increasingly-dominated by versatile swimmers like Kate Douglass, Alex Walsh, Gretchen Walsh, and Leon Marchand, Espernberger is one of the most-specialized swimmers we’ve ever seen at this level.
Where paradigms have changed so much that breaststrokers set American Records in freestyle (my high school swim coaches wouldn’t know how to process that), Espernberger is…whatever the opposite of that is.
A specialist who does one thing exceedingly well.
At last year’s SEC Championships, he was 4th in the 200 fly, 27th in the 100 fly, and 42nd in the 200 fly. A swimmer who was 4th in one event didn’t even make the C-Final in any of his other events.
This year, he was 42nd in the 200 IM on day 1, 24th in the 100 fly (picking up a point), and the SEC Champion in the 200 fly.
The records probably don’t exist to validate if swimming has ever had an individual SEC Champion whose next-best finish at that meet was as low as 24th, but it doesn’t seem likely. The only recent performance that seems kind of similar to this is David Curtiss, who as a freshman in 2022 won the ACC title in the 50 free. But even there, eh was 16th in the 100 free and 29th in the 100 back.
Versatility vs. specialization is a very different conversation in collegiate swimming than it is in international swimming. In collegiate swimming, a swimmer’s utilitarian, competitive value to a program is measured across all of their races*. An individual NCAA Champion in one event is worth fewer points than someone who finishes in 10th place in all three allowed individual races, even though the individual champion is markedly better at the one thing they do well.
*Which does not necessarily correlate to their human value to a program – a student-athlete who can win SEC titles and maintain a 3.9 GPA in an engineering program provides immense human value to their team.
On an international stage, though, one gold medal is worth more than an infinite number of 10th place finishes. For Espernberger, internationally, any improvements in his 100 fly is probably only in how that speed contributes to his 200 fly. At the US Open, where he swam his best in the 200 fly, he also swam a best time in the 100 fly – of 53.28. That’s about 1.3 seconds shy of even qualifying for the Olympics.
I love the versatility of modern swimmers. I love what it means for lineups and the decision-making of swimming. But as the sport becomes more versatile, the specialist now becomes the odd duck, the unicorn, the curious case. And I love that too.