For the first time this week, Florida’s consistency was not good enough.
Despite the No. 3-ranked Florida men’s swimming and diving team receiving seven All-America honors, the Gators saw their deficit to overall leader Texas increase to triple digits.
The team also slid one spot back in the standings, as they currently sit in third behind No. 2 California.
“We had a great day today,” UF swimming coach Gregg Troy said in a release. “We came in this morning and improved on most of our performances. … Overall it was a great day and it was capped off by a tremendous relay at the end of the night.”
Sophomore Mark Szaranek, who barely missed the A cut in the preliminary round, won the B race in the 400-yard individual medley on Friday evening. His career-best time of 3:39.28 was good enough to give the Gators a ninth-place finish and their first All-America honor of the evening.
Caeleb Dressel settled for a second place behind Texas’s Joseph Schooling in the 100-yard butterfly. Schooling’s time of 44.01 not only gave him a 0.39-second victory over Dressel, but it also broke all previous NCAA and American records set in the 100 back in 2009 that were previously held by Stanford’s Austin Staab (44.18).
Sophomore Jan Switkowski and junior Mitch D’Arrigo continued their strong performances this week. Friday night both men captured All-America honors in the 200-yard butterfly, finishing fourth and sixth overall, respectively.
“It was a good race. I was able to post my best time ever,” Switkowski said in a release. “I wasn’t seeded as high as the fourth-place finish so it felt good to go out and prove myself.”
Both of their performances, along with senior Pawel Werner’s 14th, in the 200 gave Florida its biggest points payout in any single event Friday evening (31). By this point, however, Florida’s deficit to Texas had nearly doubled halfway through the night (305-220).
The Gators would only have one more points-paying finish in the next three events. Junior Jack Blyzinskyj, who was Florida’s lone swimmer in the 100-yard backstroke, finished 12th overall with a final round time of 45.82.
With only five points accumulated in the back half of Friday’s schedule, the Gators would need a strong performance in the 200-yard medley relay in order to make up ground on Texas. Competing for the Gators in the relay would be Blyzinskyj, Szaranek, Switkowski, and Dressel as the anchor.
Blyzinskyj got the Gators off to a slow start in the first 50 yards, clocking in at 21.20 seconds, about one full second behind the leaders and sixth overall.
Szaranek soon followed, but clocked in the second slowest time of all second-leg swimmers with a 50-yard split time of 24.10.
Switkowski, who was Florida’s third-leg swimmer, changed the dynamic for the Gators in the relay. While the Gators still found themselves two seconds off the lead with 50 yards remaining, Switkowski’s split time of 20.13 gave the Gators a fighting chance at a top-five finish.
When it was time for Dressel to perform, he made the most of his opportunity. With a blistering 50-yard split of 18.00 seconds, Dressel propelled the Gators to a fourth place finish, 1.15 seconds behind relay winner Alabama.
Despite Florida’s ability to rebound late in the relay, the Gators still lost ground in the overall standings to both the Longhorns and Golden Bears at the end of Friday evening. The Gators currently trail overall leader Texas by 111 points and California by 16.
“We’re pretty relaxed going into tomorrow’s races and we’ve kept a good focus throughout the week,” Troy said. “It’s important that you stay relaxed in meets like this and don’t get tightened up — it shows confidence.”
Contact Sean Doty at sdoty@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @TheRealSeanDoty.
Caeleb Dressel races in the 400 meter freestyle relay during Florida’s meet against Auburn on Jan. 23, 2016, in the O’Connell Center.
