The Florida men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams are ready to compete in their second-straight SEC matchup against Georgia.
This time, UF has the luxury of home-arena advantage.
Florida’s last meet against Missouri brought mixed results.
The No. 9 men were handed their first loss of the year to a strong No. 4 Tigers team by a score of 109.5-90.5.
UF’s women’s team rose to No. 1 in the nation with a 176-124 victory over the then-No. 6 Missouri.
Here’s what to look out for before both squads make their first splash at 11 a.m. Friday at the O’Connell Center.
Women try to hold SEC lead
UF also has the chance to maintain the top ranking in the SEC if it can secure a win against No. 12 Georgia.
Sherridon Dressel, Leah Braswell and Ashley McCool are just three athletes who have dominated the start of this season.
Of UF’s 12 individual event wins, Dressel and Braswell have combined for five.
McCool won both the 1-meter and 3-meter diving events against Missouri.
The Gators are 5-0 for the first time since their 2009-10 championship season and are outscoring opponents by a tally of 995.5-491.5.
UF has dominated its series against Georgia. The women hold a 16-3 all-time record against UGA.
Men look to get back on track
UF is competing in its first home meet of the year. It might be exactly what the men need to rebound from their first loss of the season.
The Gators’ challenge will come in the form of No. 14 Georgia.
Whether they can tack on their first SEC win of the year will depend heavily on the strokes of Kieran Smith, Clark Beach, Eric Friese and Marco Guarente.
Smith has paced the Gators with six individual wins in UF’s first five meets.
Beach, Friese and Guarente are all tied for second-most on the team, each hitting the wall first in five individual events to start the year.
UF is 12-6-1 all-time against Georgia.
Follow Dylan O'Shea on Twitter @dylanoshea24. Contact him at doshea@alligator.org
