TheNo. 7 ranked Florida men’s swimming and diving team and No. 16 rankedwomen’s team won the Georgia Tech Invitational in Atlanta this weekend.
The last time Florida competed in this tournament was back in the 2011-12 season when the women claimed first place and the men finished as the runner-up. The men won a total of 10 individual titles and five relays, which secured first place with a score of 1,954. Host Georgia Tech finished second place with981.5 points.
There were a total of nine schools that participated in the Invitational for the men, including Florida Atlantic University and Florida State University.
UF women claimed first place with a score of 1,359, finishing almost 500points ahead of second place finishers Arkansas. It was the second straight victory at this meet for the women’s squad. Seventeen schools participated for the women, including FAU, FSU, Florida Gulf Coast and University of Miami.
“It was a very good weekend,” UF coach Gregg Troy said in a release. “Having our athletes achieve ‘A’ standard times this week is excellent. We also have a few others that are very close. Having them achieve these marks this early in the season is a tremendous plus.”
Freshman Caeleb Dressel continued his season with a victory in the 50-yard freestyle on day one of the meet in an NCAA ‘A’ standard time of 19.31 seconds.
He also contributed to two relay victories for the men. For the women, junior Natalie Hinds also claimed the 50-yard freestyle (22.07) while a part of UF’s first place 200-yard freestyle relay team.
Senior Eduardo Solaeche-Gomez led the Gators individually on day two and three of the tournament, winning the 100-yard breaststroke (53.67) and 200-yard breaststroke (1:56.16), respectively.
“Really good things for us team wise…we have about half of the group that qualified for the NCAA meet that we think we can and halfway through the season that’s a good place for us to be,” Troy said. “We found a lot of young athletes that we found they can compete in a big heap with a lot of people in both some prelims and finals. So overall it was a great weekend for us and a good finishing point for fall and a great starting point for next semester.”
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Florida swimmers line up to begin the men’s open 400-meter individual medley during the Pinch A Penny All Florida Invitational on Sept. 28 in the O’Connell Center.
