It was another win on Saturday for the Florida’s swimming and diving men’s and women’s teams over FAU to keep the undefeated all-time record against the Owls going.
The No. 3 Gator men (6-0, 3-0 Southeastern Conference) were competing without eight of their swimmers and a diver – who are on the road at the Classic at SMU – but still recorded a win in all but two of the 32 events en route to a 166 – 123 victory.
FAU’s Matthieu Burtez grabbed first in the 100-yard free with a time of 45.98 seconds, beating second place Daniel Spas from Florida by 1.4 seconds. Greg Cox picked up the other win for the Owls on the 3-meter springboard over the Gators second place redshirt senior Chris Jones who did earn his first win of the season after returning from injury on Nov. 7 against Alabama on the 1-meter board.
“Chris Jones was really good on the one-meter, but he lacked some confidence on the three-meter,” Gators coach Gregg Troy said. “We’ve got to step up and get a little bit better in the next couple of weeks and focus on being prepared for the conference championships.”
On the other side, it was a clean sweep for No. 8 Florida’s women (4-2, 2-1 SEC) that included two top-10 national times for the season from senior Elizabeth Beisel in the 500-yard free (4:37.04) and the 200-yard butterfly (1:54.60).
“On the women’s side, I saw a lot of improvement. It looks like we are going in the right direction for the SEC Championships,” Troy said.
Gators finish second: Day 2 of the Classic at SMU started off with the Gator’s men’s squad in second place, and that’s where they would stay.
Despite solid performance from sophomore Eduardo Solaeche-Gomez, Florida couldn’t move up the scoreboard finishing with 321 points. Michigan’s four wins on Day 2 – seven total – proved to be too much as they put up 333 points.
Solaeche-Gomez won the 200-yard individual medley (1:44.61) and grabbed second in the 200-yard breaststroke (1:56.42).
Florida will return to action in a dual meet against Auburn’s No. 4 men’s and No. 6 women’s teams on Jan. 25, in the O’Connell Center.
Follow Logan McGuire on Twitter @loganjmcguire
