Ten swimmers and two relays from the No. 8 Gators women’s swimming and diving team competed in Day 1 of the NCAA Championships in Minneapolis, Minn., on Thursday. Despite setting three school records, the only finals appearance Florida made was in the 400-yard medley relay.
The Gators sit in eighth place heading into Day 2.
Both of Florida’s relay squads came into the national meet with top-10 times. The 200-yard freestyle relay group of sophomores Natalie Hinds, Sinead Russell, Ashlee Linn and senior Ellese Zalewski held up, finishing 10th in prelims with a season-best swim of 1:28.41, but they missed on the finals.
However, in the “B” final they followed up with a school-record performance, touching in first at 1:27.54 — a time that would have been good enough for fifth overall.
The Gators had already set a flurry of school records this season coming into NCAAs, and they didn’t wait for the finals to break another one in the 400-yard medley relay.
Senior Hilda Luthersdottir, Hinds, Zalewski and Russell earned the third seed in the 200-yard free relays with a school-record swim that was 0.6 seconds faster than the previous time the relay set earlier this season (3:29.67). But the finals saw their time slip to 3:30.27, and the team missed the podium by nearly a whole second, finishing in fourth place.
The 50-yard free was a slip up for Hinds, the lone Gator competing in the event, who finished 14th in prelims after recording the nation’s ninth-best time at SECs a month ago. She turned it around in the “B” final when she broke the third school record for UF on Thursday and won her heat at 21.66 seconds — only 0.07 seconds off the national champion’s time, which would have earned her a silver medal.
Florida was represented well in the 500-yard free with seven swimmers competing, but the best finish the women could muster was senior Alicia Mathieu in 21st place (4:41.78) during prelims. The other six finished in 37th, 42nd, 43rd, 46th, 52nd and 56th.
The action resumes today with senior Elizabeth Beisel attempting to defend her 400-yard IM NCAA title.
Prelims start at noon and finals at 8 p.m.
Follow Logan McGuire on Twitter @loganjmcguire
Senior Elizabeth Beisel competes in the 200-yard butterfly during Florida’s match against Auburn on Jan. 25 in the O’Connell Center. Beisel will compete in the 400 IM today.
