There were plenty of mixed emotions before, during and after Saturday’s final home meet for the Gators swimming and diving team.
On Senior Day, the No. 11 ranked UF women’s swimming team, lead by seniors Natalie Hinds and Jessica Thielmann, showed much jubilation after putting on a strong performance in their 192-108 victory over No. 10 Auburn.
“It was pretty emotional, I got choked up at times,” Hinds said. “It’s amazing, there’s so many people here cheering for us and it’s just a great feeling.”
The No. 3 ranked UF men’s swimming team, despite several impressive performances by seniors Corey Main and Arthur Frayler, were defeated by the No. 7 ranked Tigers 154.5-145.5.
Hinds was UF’s top swimmer on the day. She captured three individual victories, winning the 50-meter, the 100-meter freestyle and 100-meter butterfly. Hinds’ 26.10 second time in the 50-meter relay was good enough to earn her a second spot in the Olympic Trials later this year.
The Midland, Texas, native was also a part of the 400-meter freestyle relay team, which Florida won.
Other noteworthy individual performances from the women’s victory include Thielmann’s wins in 400-meter and 800-meter freestyle, and redshirt-junior Georgia-Mae Hohmann’s victories in the 100-meter and 200-meter backstroke.
On the men’s side, Main and Frayler, along with sophomore Caeleb Dressel, captured four individual victories and one relay victory among the three swimmers.
Frayler, who qualified for the Olympic Trials after posting a winning time of 15:49.53 in the men’s 1500-meter freestyle, was overjoyed after the race.
“I think I celebrated a bit too much,” Frayler said. “I try not to do that. I just got fired up, it being the last race for me here at home.”
Even though the men’s team was unable to match the women’s team on the scoreboard, UF coach Gregg Troy was pleased with his team’s overall performance on Saturday.
“It was great racing today between two great teams,” Troy said. “There weren’t many races today that weren’t close. I’m really pleased with the competition and the enthusiasm I saw today throughout both the men’s and women’s teams.”
The Gators also experienced mixed results on the diving boards Saturday. Seniors Emily Mosher and Khalia Warner captured victories in both 1-meter and 3-meter diving for the women’s team, respectively.
However, the men’s team failed to score a single victory in either the 1-meter and 3-meter dives and only one diver, redshirt-senior Zach Hernandez, placed on the podium both events, finishing second in 3-meter diving.
“I would have liked to have seen more out of our divers today,” said UF diving coach Dale Schultz. “There were points throughout the meet where we didn’t execute where I would have liked to and it cost us some points on the men’s side. We’ll continue to clean up those mistakes as we move forward.”
The Gators will have a short week of rest, as they travel to Knoxville, Tennessee to take on the Volunteers’ No. 18 men’s and No. 9 women’s swimming and diving teams on Jan. 30.
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Natalie Hinds races in the 100 meter butterfly during Florida’s meet against Auburn on Jan. 23, 2016, in the O’Connell Center.
