As this season has been progressing, the UF swim teams have always been looking to the spring season, but they also focused on the competition that stood in their way this fall.
Spring is approaching quickly, but the Gators still have to head to Tallahassee to face Florida State in what is shaping up to be a tough meet.
The Seminoles were last in action in a dual meet last week against Virginia and out-of-conference competition Penn State. The men's team pulled off a surprise victory against the then-ranked No. 15 Nittany Lions but suffered a loss to the Cavaliers. The women's team failed to win either of its matches.
UF coach Gregg Troy calls Saturday's meet "probably the most important meet on (FSU's) schedule."
"They've come in really ready for us," Troy said. "It's actually doing us a favor because it puts a key meet at the end (of the season)."
UF heads into the weekend happy of its performance so far. The Gator women, comprised mostly of inexperienced, young swimmers, have faced tough competition this season. They already faced the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the nation - Georgia and Stanford, respectively - and held their own in the two losses.
The Gators have had more than two weeks of rest from meets, but Troy has been hard at work pushing his team in practice and signing several swimmers for next year's team.
After adding 19 new swimmers the year before, the women's team adds three new swimmers, two from Florida and one - Eva Lehtonen - from Finland who swam in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics for the Finnish national team.
The men's team had a more normal recruiting class, adding 7 new swimmers for next year including three who had previously swam on the national level.
Knowing wins and losses aren't everything at this time in the season, Troy has been able to push his Gators in more ways than some of the competition may require.
When Troy felt South Carolina wouldn't push his team enough, he made them practice even harder the day before and required them to wake up earlier than usual on Saturday to have a water practice before the meet.
He pushed in order to keep the swimmers from becoming too complacent.
Did it work?
We may not know until much later, but Troy knows FSU is waiting to give UF their test.
