The Florida men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams (M: 2-1, 2-1 Southeastern conference; W: 3-1, 3-1 SEC) dropped their first meets of the season against Georgia on Friday afternoon inside Georgia’s Gabrielsen Natatorium.
The UF men fell 174.5-122.5 while the women lost by a score of 176-119. The Gators dropped eight of the first nine events of the meet with junior Lindsey McKnight winning the women’s 200-yard freestyle in the meet’s fifth event.
Junior Natalie Hinds and freshman Caeleb Dressel held serve in the 50-yard freestyle (Hinds: 22.55, Dressel: 20.06) and 100-yard freestyle (Hinds: 49.37, Dressel: 44.35), winning both events respectively.
Juniors Sinead Russell and Jessica Thielmann along with senior Jordan Smith and sophomore Alyssa Yambor-Maul led the women to victory in the 400-yard freestyle relay in 3:29.45.
The men went on to win the same event in 3:00.39 headed by senior Dan Wallace, juniors Corey Main and Pawel Werner and freshman Mark Szaranek.
Overall, the men dropped to record 61-16-3 lifetime against UGA while the women fall below .500 all-time versus the Bulldogs at 14-15. For Georgia’s women’s team, the Bulldogs’ also kept their home streak alive, increasing to 92 straight victories in their home of Athens.
“We raced two really good teams today,” coach Gregg Troy said in a press release. “I thought we raced well, but we just lost a lot of close races. We had two good weeks of training coming into this, but we still have a lot to improve upon heading forward. Going forward, the Gators return home next weekend to face off against Minnesota in their penultimate meet of the fall on Saturday. The men’s squad last met Minnesota a year ago when they defeated the Gophers by a score of 172-124 in Minneapolis. As for the women, they haven’t faced the Gophers since October of 2007 in Minneapolis when UF won 168-132.
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