With one dual meet remaining on the schedule for Florida’s swimming and diving teams, UF will travel to Knoxville, Tenn., to take on Tennessee on Saturday at 10 a.m.
Southeastern Conference Championships are only a few weeks away, and NCAAs a month out, so the second-ranked Florida men’s team (7-0, 4-0 SEC) and No. 8 women’s team (5-2, 3-1 SEC) are using this last meet to solidify the SEC roster.
“Our men's squad, we took a little different approach,” Gators coach Gregg Troy said. “We had about 10 guys that understand that our last four, five spots are up for grabs.”
Troy, the 2012 USA Men’s Olympic Swim Team head coach, has been adamant about his goals all season – making a run at the SEC and NCAA titles. He called the last two dual meets, Auburn and Tennessee, dress rehearsals for the championship meets because of the same early start times as the championships.
As the Gators prepare for the Volunteers No. 18 men and No. 15 women, they are looking to fine-tune the team.
“We want to see more of what we saw last week,” Troy said. “Now, it’s just honing race skills, working on things that you’d like to see.
“We’re trying to get into a routine, get a feel for what we’re doing and constantly improve little things.”
Troy said his team was still sloppy in some areas.
Although the starts have gotten better for Florida – something Troy has noted as a weakness previously – he was still critical of his teams’ work at the walls, saying more leg-weight training was in order.
But he isn’t trying to tire out the swimmers too much.
“We’re not coming in every day where it’s really something hard, but everything is purposeful. It’s directed and there’s different training and there’s a little more daylight between sets so they’re getting a little more recovery time,” Troy said.
“By the same token, that preparation is something people will respond real well right away and some people will take some time getting used to.”
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