The moment sophomore Brooke Madden broke the surface after completing a dive, there was only one thing on her mind.
“What’s my score?” she said. “I look at my coach, I look at him and say ‘Was it good?’”
There were a lot of nods “yes” on Thursday at the O’Connell Center as Madden finished first in the women’s 1-meter dive against Georgia with a score of 316.58. The performance came one day after the Gators’ meet against Alabama on Wednesday, where Madden completed a full sweep by winning both the women’s 1-meter dive and the women’s 3-meter dive.
“Alabama was our first away meet, so it’s definitely a lot different,” Madden said. “We’ve been used to this pool all season so far. Getting out of our own pool was good for us, getting used to different boards and a different environment, but it feels a lot more comfortable to be back in our own pool.”
Redshirt senior Dalton Goss was the highest-placing Gator on the men’s side, finishing third, with sophomore Alex Farrow trailing right behind him in fourth.
For Madden, despite the fact there were positives there to take away from her performance, she acknowledged there is still work to be done.
“It’s the beginning of the season, so nothing’s as sharp as I want it to be,” she said. “I just need to work on making things a little prettier.”
Florida hopes to carry the momentum it garnered from Thursday’s diving event into today’s swimming competition, where it’ll take on Georgia’s No. 6 women’s team and No. 12 men’s team.
UF’s No. 3 men’s team will look to continue its success with SEC Male Swimmer of the Week Jan Switkowski leading the charge. For the No. 20 women’s team, it will attempt to continue its surge after a 166-134 victory against the Crimson Tide.
The Bulldogs enter today’s competition with both the men’s and women’s team having won each of their last three meets by at least 40 points. The Bulldogs are 4-0 overall, having defeated Emory, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Northwestern, with the North Carolina meet their only one at home. Georgia has been busy this month, and it’ll hope to improve its streak to 5-0 as it enters the meet on Friday.
“Conference competitions are a little more important to our team in general, just because of rivals, with the Florida-Georgia rivalry going on,” Madden said.
You can follow River Wells on Twitter @riverhwells, and contact him at rwells@alligator.org.
The Florida-Georgia swimming and diving meet started on Thursday with the diving event. The swimmers will compete today at 10 a.m.
