The University of Florida has been well-represented through the first two days of the World University Games in Taipei, Taiwan.
Day 2 saw four different Gators compete, including Maxime Rooney, a sophomore from Livermore, California. Rooney won gold in the men’s 4x100-meter freestyle relays on Day 1.
Rooney followed up in Day 2 with a second-place finish in the men’s 200m freestyle preliminaries, earning a trip to the semifinals. He failed to advance after a 10th-place finish in the semifinal round.
Former Gator Mitch D’Arrigo, who wrapped up his senior season with Florida in spring, finished eighth in the men’s 200m freestyle prelims and advanced to the semifinals with Rooney. D’Arrigo, who attended high school at P.K. Yonge in Gainesville, later qualified for the final round of the event behind a sixth-place semifinals performance.
D’Arrigo also finished eighth in the men's 400m freestyle on Day 1.
Sophomore Grant Sanders and redshirt junior Georgia Marris also competed on Day 2.
Sanders advanced to the men's 200m individual medley semifinals after finishing 14th in the prelims. Sanders finished 14th in the semifinal round as well, but did not make the cut for the final round.
Marris finished 25th overall in the women’s 100m freestyle but did not advance past the prelims.
The final Gator to compete so far is redshirt junior Bayley Main. On Day 1, Main, a New Zealand native, took part in the men's 100m backstroke and men's 4x100m freestyle relay prelims.
Main failed to qualify in either event, finishing 36th in the 100m backstroke and 17th in the 4x100m freestyle relay.
You can follow Andrew Huang on Twitter @AndrewJHuang, and contact him at ahuang@alligator.org.
Mitch D’Arrigo, who finished his senior season in spring, races in the 400 meter freestyle during Florida’s meet against Auburn on Jan. 23, 2016, in the O’Connell Center.
