Florida’s men’s swimming team got off to a record-breaking start in the NCAA Championships.
With a final overall time of 6:09.84, the Gators recorded their fastest relay time of the season and broke the previous school record in the 800-yard freestyle relay. Even with their record-breaking performance, the Gators finished third overall, 1.81 seconds behind first place Texas and just 0.26 seconds behind NC State.
"Hats off to the other two schools, they swam real well too," coach Gregg Troy said in a release. "For us, swimming the third-fastest time in history and putting up a new school record, we’re real pleased with it."
The Gators got off to a rocky start in the first leg. Florida’s lead-off swimmer senior Pawel Werner was the team’s slowest swimmer on the evening. His 200-yard split time of 1:33.11 put the Gators in a 1.2-second deficit to overall leader Texas and sixth in the overall leaderboard.
Sophomore Jan Switkowski quickly turned the tide for the Gators in the second leg.
With a 200-yard split time of 1:31.33, his split was the fastest among the four Gators and the second-fastest 200-yard split in the entire relay.
Switkowski’s performance was immediately followed by junior Mitch D’Arrigo. D’Arrigo’s 1:32.69 time in the third leg was good enough to propel Florida up to second in the overall leaderboard, 1.44 seconds behind Texas.
Sophomore Mark Szaranek completed the final 200 yards of the relay as Florida’s anchor. Szaranek swam fast enough in the first 150 yards to maintain Florida’s second-place spot on the leaderboard. In the final 50 yards, however, NC State’s Soeren Dahl swam by Szaranek to steal second from the Gators.
"It was a great swim and we were able to break the school record and put up a fast time," Szaranek said in a release. "We were hoping to finish a little higher than third but for putting up the third-fastest time ever, we’re happy with it."
Currently eight points behind Texas in the overall standings, the Gators are scheduled to compete across six different events today. Two of the biggest individual events for the Gators will be in the 50-yard freestyle and the 1-meter dive.
Sophomore Caeleb Dressel and senior Corey Main will both be competing in their first event of the meet in the 50-yard freestyle.
Dressel, Florida’s winningest swimmer this season, will look to defend his national title in the 50-yard freestyle later today.
In the 1-meter dive, freshman Samuel Smith will be competing in his first NCAA championship event of his collegiate career.
While UF diving coach Dale Schultz isn’t expecting a victory from Smith this evening, he knows that a good finish from his talented freshman would go a long way for Florida’s national championship chances.
"If Sam got top 16 this week that would be very good," Schultz said in a release. "I don’t have any expectations of winning right out of the gate."
Contact Sean Doty at sdoty@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @TheRealSeanDoty.
Jan Switkowski races in the 200 meter butterfly during Florida’s meet against Auburn on Jan. 23, 2016, in the O’Connell Center.
