The USA Swimming AT&T Winter National Championship is one of the most prestigious meets in the swimming calendar, with some of the best swimmers from all corners of the globe traveling to the U.S. each year to compete – including 15 Gators this year.
On the men’s side, a young cast is competing for Florida. Freshmen Dan Wallace, Nicholas Caldwell, Carlos Omana, Eduardo Solaeche, Matt Elliott and Matthew Curby, and sophomores Connor Signorin, Brad deBorde and Marcin Cieslak, are all in Atlanta representing the Gators.
On the women’s side, seniors Teresa Crippen and Sarah Bateman, junior Jamie Bohunicky and sophomores Elizabeth Beisel, Hilda Luthersdottir and Ellese Zalewski are all competing.
The championships began Thursday, and the Florida swimmers did not fare as well as they hoped.
Each event consisted of morning preliminary heats followed by three final races in the evening. The top-30 swimmers in the prelims earned a spot in either the A, B, or C final races.
Beisel was the only Gator to make the A final in any of the races, coming in eighth place in the 200-meter individual medley, and 10th in the 400 freestyle.
In the 200 IM, Crippen won the C Final, while Bohunicky placed 6th in the B Final of the 400 freestyle with a time better than a swimmer in the A Final.
In the 50 freestyle, Bateman finished second in the B Final, finishing only .01 seconds behind the race-winner Victoria Poon.
The real disappointment of the day was from the Florida men, who didn’t place in any of the final races.
In the 400 freestyle prelims, Caldwell earned a 40th-place finish, followed by Wallace, who came in 54th, and Connor Signorin, who finished 61st.
The 200 IM prelims saw a couple of good results for the Gators, as Marcin Cieslak came in 35th and Solaeche finished 42nd.
