After both the UF men and women’s swimming and diving teams captured their sixth-straight All Florida Invitational titles on Sept. 20 in Gainesville, the teams will be tested with a pair of tough road meets against Minnesota and Vanderbilt.
Florida is on track to build off of last season’s top-ten success.
The women’s team is kick-starting this week’s competition today, when they will fly to Nashville to take on the Vanderbilt Commodores.
Since Vanderbilt does not have a diving team, the divers will stay behind in Gainesville to focus on training.
According to coach Gregg Troy, this will help the team focus on just the swim meet, which won’t be as long or have as many breaks.
Troy is expecting these meets to prove how tough his team is, especially since a few of his swimmers have been battling injuries and illnesses since the Invitational.
"We have a couple injuries on the women’s side, and a little bit of flu," Troy said.
The women will then meet up with the men’s team on Saturday at Minnesota’s Freeman Aquatic Center for a dual-competition.
Last season, both teams took on Minnesota in the O’Connell Center on Nov. 8th in the same dual competition.
The then-No. 5-ranked men’s swimming and diving team defeated the No. 19 Minnesota, 167-125.
However, when the No. 11 women’s squad competed against the No. 10 Minnesota, they lost by a score of 183-117.
This is the first meeting since that loss, giving the women a chance to redeem themselves and show how much they have grown as a team with the help of the freshmen.
As for the men, it will serve as a measuring stick for their progress.
"(Minnesota) is the best competition we have seen so far," Troy said.
"They competed last week at FSU, so they have already seen a dual-meet.
Both of the meets will give the coaches a chance to see how well their increased intensity practices has paid off.
According to Troy, the first month’s training cycle is focused on making sure the team is technically sound, but now in practice they are focusing on more race-specific things and emphasizing the weight program.
They will also test how well the women can perform with back-to-back meets.
"For the women especially, it’s almost like a three-day competition because of the travel," Troy said. "And we made it a little uncomfortable for them on purpose. We’re going to see that discomfort at the end of the year too, so learning to handle it is good for the freshman and younger athletes."
Competition starts today for the women at 7 p.m. in Nashville, and Saturday at 11 a.m. for both the men and women’s team in Minneapolis.
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Under coach Gregg Troy (above), Florida returns 11 All-Americans this season on the men’s team and two-time Olympian Elizabeth Beisel to the women.
