Entering the Southeastern Conference Championship
meet, Florida coach Gregg Troy said he was tired of settling for
second place.
Both his men’s and women’s squads were runners-up at
last year’s meet, and the men had earned that distinction each of
the last 11 years.
When the 2012 SEC Championship wrapped up Saturday in
Knoxville, Tenn., Troy again had to settle for something other than
first place, as the Florida men finished in second 30.5 points
behind Auburn for the conference crown and the women placed third
behind SEC champion Georgia and host Tennessee.
“Obviously, you never like to come out on the short
end, but we had some tremendous, outstanding performances from our
swimmers,” Troy said. “We accomplished one of our main goals coming
into Knoxville, and got some automatic qualifying times for the
NCAA meet – which we both wanted and needed to do.”
Despite not taking home the team title, four Gators
combined to earn eight individual championships during the four-day
event, including three each from sophomores Marcin Cieslak and
Elizabeth Beisel.
The two were the only swimmers at the meet to earn
three individual first-place finishes and it helped them earn SEC
Swimmer of the Year honors a year after each took home SEC Freshman
Swimmer of the Year awards at the 2011 meet.
Beisel, who won the 200-yard individual medley and
defended her 400-yard IM title earlier in the meet, clinched her
third medal when she set the fourth-fastest 200-yard backstroke
time in NCAA history by touching the wall in 1:49.82. It marked the
second year in a row Beisel won the event.
She also became just the fifth female swimmer to
record a sub-1:50 time and came within 1.48 seconds of tying the
all-time mark owned by former Florida great Gemma Spofforth.
“It means a lot to get the win, especially on the
last night here at the SEC meet,” Beisel said Saturday. “It has
been such a long season. … I am just glad I was able to get the win
for the team.”
While Beisel won her third gold medal Saturday,
Cieslak also claimed his third on the meet’s final day when he won
the 200-yard butterfly. After finishing second in the event a year
ago, Cieslak set the nation’s best time of the year by clocking a
1:42.43.
Cieslak also took home SEC titles in the 200-yard IM
and the 200-yard freestyle.
Along with the combined six titles by Beisel and
Cieslak, the Gators earned first place in the men’s 50-yard
freestyle and men’s 400-yard IM. Brad deBorde claimed the 50-yard
freestyle with a time of 19.29 to set a UF record in the event
while freshman Eduardo Solaeche finished the 400-yard IM in
3:43.57.
The women’s 800-yard freestyle team of Beisel, Jamie
Bohunicky, Teresa Crippen and Natasha Fung also automatically
qualified for next month’s NCAA championship meet with a time of
7:00.32.
Contact Tom Green at
tgreen@alligator.org.
