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Led by the 400-yard medley relay team and Conor Dwyer’s monster
day, the Florida men’s swimming team closed Auburn’s first-place
lead down to just 27 points on the third day of the 2011
Southeastern Conference Swimming Championships.
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Dwyer, a senior, teamed with fellow senior Brett Fraser, redshirt
sophomore Marco Loughran and freshman Marcin Cieslak to take first
place in the 400-yard medley relay Friday night, but earlier in the
day the All-American won the 400-yard individual medley with the
fastest time in the country.
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Loughran and Cieslak also earned individual first places to finish
a strong day for Florida.
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Cieslak grabbed his gold medal in the 100-yard butterfly,
qualifying with an NCAA “A” time.
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Loughran won a close race for the 100-yard backstroke title, and
said coming in second wasn’t an option.
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“My dad’s flown over from England,” he said. “And I was thinking
it’s going to be a waste of time if he’s flown over here and I’ve
got second.”
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For the women’s team, freshman Elizabeth Beisel took home a gold
medal after grabbing an SEC record in the 400 IM with a time of
4:00.83, the second-fastest time in the nation this year. And yet,
Beisel still expects more from herself.
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“It was definitely a goal to get to the four-minute mark, possibly
under, but I didn’t this time,” she said. “It was the best time by
four seconds, so I can’t really complain.”
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The women lost the lead to Georgia today and are now in second
place, 50 points behind.
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“We raced really well in the women,” said coach Gregg Troy. “We’re
just not quite as deep there.”
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Beisel said the women are far from out of the race given the events
that await.
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“Tomorrow is our best day, so hopefully we’ll be able to get back
in the lead,” she said.
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Troy said for the Florida teams to tip the scores in their favor,
they have to swim well in the preliminary rounds.
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“We have to come in tomorrow morning and swim well, and make sure
we place in the finals and the consolation finals,” he said.
