Last year the Gators had five home meets.
This year? Just one.
With the ongoing renovations of the O’Connell Center, Florida was forced to give up its home-field advantage in several meets. One of those meets came this past weekend against Texas and Indiana.
The meet was important, and the Gators lost handily.
And while head coach Gregg Troy doesn’t believe the location directly impacted the result of the meet, he acknowledged that it affected his team in some ways.
“It’s a little more of the peripheral things,” Troy said on Monday. “The amount of rest the athletes are getting, getting back late on Saturday night. We had a bus break down and you’re up again early on Monday morning training.”
That kind of grueling schedule may impact the athletes. Last week the Gators were in Indiana, next week they’ll be in Georgia, and the week after they’ll travel to Texas.
In fact, it won’t be until Jan. 28 that the Gators finally get to compete in Gainesville. That’s over four consecutive months on the road.
“You get a chance to listen to Mary (Wise) and Becky (Burleigh) when they talk about how good it is coming home when you’ve been on the road,” Troy said. “We’ve been on the road three weeks in a row and we’re gonna pack up and go again this week and the week after.”
Florida’s players are even feeling the effects outside of the swimming pool. Troy said his players are at a disadvantage in school, and since the majority of meets are on the weekend, many of the swimmers are missing valuable Thursday and Friday classes on a weekly basis.
The Gators' road meets will continue this weekend when they travel to face Georgia on Friday.
Contact Drew Kozlin at dkozlin@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @DrewKoz2.
UF coach Gregg Troy encourages his swimmers during Florida’s meet against Auburn on Jan. 23, 2016, in the O’Connell Center.
