It was a successful Day 1 at the Ohio State Buckeye Invitational for Florida’s swimming and diving teams that included six NCAA “A” cuts and a school record in the women’s 400-yard medley relay.
The men are in the top spot after sweeping the first six events of the meet on their way to a 42-point lead ahead of second-place Ohio State. Virginia is leading the women’s field by 28-points over Florida.
“We had a really good evening session. We had some ‘A’ cuts and we set a school record,” UF coach Gregg Troy said. “For us to go that fast this time of year shows that the work these folks are doing is extremely good. I was very impressed with Natalie Hinds and Ellese Zalewski.”
Both Hinds and Zalewski, along with Sinead Russell and Hilda Luthersdottir, were part of the record-setting medley relay group that came in at 3:30.27 – 1.14 seconds better than the previous record set in 2009.
The women posted three postseason qualifying times – the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:29.49), the 400-yard medley relay and senior Elizabeth Beisel’s 200-yard individual medley (1:54.59).
“Overall, the men’s side, we have multiple ‘A’ standards and some guys that are high enough in the ‘B’ standard to have four or five guys already qualified for the NCAA Championships,” Troy said.
Florida’s men also notched three NCAA “A” cuts on Friday night with freshman Mitch D’Arrigo’s 500-yard free (4:15.04), senior Marcin Cieslak’s 200-yard IM (1:42.69) and the 400-yard medley relay (3:09.25) – all unofficially national-best times this season.
“This was one of the fastest 200 IM’s that I’ve ever swam, and it is very early in the season. I am excited to rest and see what I can go at the end of the season,” Cieslak said. “I had a lot of fun racing today.”
With two days of competition remaining, there are a lot of events to be decided and points to be earned. Florida will have to continue competing at this high of a level if both teams want to come away with victories this weekend.
“We’re in a real good spot at the moment,” Troy said. “We still have two days left and need to be really good these next two days.”
Follow Logan McGuire on Twitter @loganjmcguire.
Florida swimmers line up to begin the men’s open 400-meter individual medley during the Pinch A Penny All Florida Invitational on Sept. 28 in the O’Connell Center.
