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Thursday, February 06, 2025

The Gators swimming and diving teams will kick off the spring by competing in their home pool for the first time since October.

Florida will host Georgia Tech in the O’Connell Center Natatorium today, with diving starting at 2:30 p.m. and swimming set to begin at 5 p.m. Both UF squads are ranked in the top 10 heading into the final three months of the season, with the men checking in at No. 5 and the women No. 6 in the nation.

The O’Connell Center doors will open at 1:30 p.m., and admission to the dual meet is free.

The Gators have been out of the pool since Dec. 3-5, when each team took a second-place finish at the 2010 Big Al Open at DeNunzio Pool despite less than half of each roster making the trip to Princeton, N.J. Freshman Ellese Zalewski had a breakout performance, making her first four career NCAA cuts.

The Yellow Jackets, meanwhile, have not competed since Nov. 19-21 at the Georgia Tech Fall Invitational. UF was also at that meet, as the men took second with 1,121 points (673 more than GT) and the women finished third with 939 points (659 more than the Yellow Jackets).

Florida’s men own the top times in the Southeastern Conference in the 200-yard freestyle (1:34.70), 1,000 free (9:00.48), 200 individual medley (1:45.52), 400 IM (3:45.21) and 800 free relay (6:31.74). Those five times, along with the Gators’ 400 free relay time of 2:57.58, are in the top 10 nationally.

Senior Conor Dwyer, last season’s NCAA and SEC Male Swimmer of the Year, leads the men’s squad, having recorded NCAA-best times in the 1,000 free and 400 IM while becoming the first swimmer in UF history to be named SEC Male Swimmer of the Week three times in the same season.

The women have two top times in the SEC — the 200-yard backstroke (1:54.27) and 400 IM (4:06.84) — and the highest scores in the 1-meter and platform diving competitions. Freshman Elizabeth Beisel has led the Gators  this season, taking home SEC Female Swimmer of the Week honors three times this season.

Today’s meet will mark a first for Florida’s women’s squad, as the Gators and Yellow Jackets have never faced off before. The men, on the other hand, competed on Oct. 23, 2009, when UF beat Georgia Tech 161-123 in Atlanta.

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