The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams are competing in their home pool this weekend for the first time in over a month.
The men’s team comes into the meet fresh off its sixth straight SEC championship, which it won last weekend in College Station, Texas. The Florida men are currently ranked No. 4 in the country. Most of the men’s elite swimmers, such as seniors Caeleb Dressel, Jan Switkowski and Mark Szaranek, as well as sophomore Khader Baqlah have already qualified for the NCAA Championships. This meet serves as an opportunity for swimmers to qualify if they were unable to do so during the dual-meet season.
The women’s team, which is ranked No. 17 in the country, will also try to qualify as many swimmers as possible for the NCAA Championships. Swimmers like freshmen Taylor Ault and Jessica Rodriguez have already qualified from solid performances this season.
To qualify, swimmers must get A-Cut or B-cut times, which are times set by the NCAA before the season begins as a standard to meet in order to swim in the NCAA Championships.
The preliminary events begin every day at 10 a.m. and the finals begin at 5 p.m. The meet is taking place at the O’Connell Center from Friday to Sunday.
Follow Jacob McManamon on Twitter @jmcmanamon97 and contact him at jmcmanamon@alligator.org.
Senior Caeleb Dressel leads the men's team into the Last Chance Meet happening this weekend at the O'Connell Center.
