Make it a combined 36-0 all-time for UF’s men’s and women’s swimming and diving team (M: 1-0, 1-0 Southeastern conference; W: 2-0, 2-0 SEC) against LSU (M: 0-1, 0-1 SEC; W 1-1, 0-1 SEC) as the Florida men’s squad defeated the Tigers by a score of 162.5-122.5 while the women won 166-134 on Friday afternoon.
The men are now 22-0 and women 14-0 all-time against the Tigers, but coach Gregg Troy doesn’t think too much into streaks.
“Every meet is what it is,” said Troy. “Every year is different and I had no idea until I saw that some place this weekend. We just try to do the best job we can on any given day and every year is different and focusing on different things.”
Freshman phenom Caeleb Dressel led the men with two individual victories in the 50-yard freestyle (19.94) and 100-yard butterfly (48.39) while junior Corey Main won the 100-yard freestyle (44.81) and contributed to the 200 medley relay victory.
“We saw some things that were real good today,” said Troy. “Corey Main continues to impress me with what he’s doing. (It was the) first meet for Dan Wallace... we had back... so he was obviously real rusty but his technique looked good.”
For the women, Jessica Thielmann had herself a day. The junior from Newcastle, England, had two individual event wins and was a member of the first place relay team in the 400 yard free-style. Coach Troy had nothing but good things to say about Thielmann, as well as junior Lindsey McKnight, who was a part of both relay wins for the women’s group.
“Lindsey McKnight continues to impress,” Troy said. “Jessica Thielmann has been fantastic...really big week training coming in and doing what she did and she’s having to swim a lot of weird doubles because we just aren’t that deep.”
Moving forward, Troy with take both his squads on the road for the first time this season when the Gators travel to Lexington, Ky., on Thursday to face another SEC opponent, Kentucky. And there will be nothing different in the schedule when it comes to training.
“We’ll stay right on our training plan. A meet like this, especially one like this against Kentucky...we’ll treat them a little more as quality training as a point of reference of what we need to work on in the coming weeks.”
Kahlia Warner won first place in the one-meter dive as the Australian junior continues to lead the diving group on the boards.
“I put a little bit of a challenge on Kahlia Warner,” said coach Dale Schultz. “(I) had her do a front and reverse three and a half pike, just to put a little pressure on her. (We’re) trying to get her ready for the NCAA’s and that’s our focus. The biggest improvement was more consistency from the women.”
Follow Aaron Friedland on Twitter @aafriedland
Freshman Caeleb Dressel jumps into the pool at the start of the 200-yard breaststroke event during Day 3 of the 2014 Pinch A Penny Invitational
