It was a rough afternoon for Florida on the second day of the NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships.
Sophomore diver Brooke Madden was the lone bright spot for UF, landing her first career All-American honorable mention with a fifth-place mark in the 1-meter consolation final. She finished 13th overall with a score of 294.50.
"It was a great performance by Brooke today,” diving coach Bryan Gillooly said in a release. “It was a breakthrough, and she has had several of those this year and now to be able to do it at the national level is just awesome."
Of the nine Florida women who qualified for the NCAA Championships, Madden is the only diver. The other eight are swimmers, and they were all in action Thursday.
Three Gators competed in the prelims of the 50-yard free. Sophomore Sherridon Dressel set a personal-best time of 22.48, good for the seventh best mark in the event in Florida history.
However, none of Florida’s swimmers finished higher than 20th in the events they competed in.
Dressel’s personal-best time was only good for 31st place, followed by senior Amelia Maughan in 57th. Sophomore Emma Ball finished 60th overall for last place.
Sophomore Kelly Fertel had a career-best time of 1:56.84 in the 200 IM, but finished 21st. Juniors Hannah Burns and Sydney Sell also competed in that event, finishing 36th and 65th, respectively.
In the 500 free, freshman Taylor Ault competed in her first individual NCAA event, finishing 39th. Sophomore Savanna Faulconer finished 45th in the same event.
Eight Gators will compete tomorrow, with three each in the 400 IM and 100 back. Ault is the only Gator who competed today who won’t be competing tomorrow.
Follow Sam Campisano on Twitter @samcampisano and contact him at scampisano@alligator.org.
Freshman Taylor Ault finished 39th out of 64 swimmers in the 500-yard free Thursday afternoon in her first NCAA Championship event.
