Florida will begin its swimming and diving season today in the O’Connell Center at 10 a.m. at the Pinch A Penny All Florida Invitational.
The meet will run through the weekend with prelims starting at 9 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday followed by finals at 4 p.m.
Tonight’s finals will begin at 7.
“This meet is unique because you have a lot of the Florida swimmers and divers together,” coach Gregg Troy said.
“There are a lot of athletes that were recruited by all of the schools, so they all know one another.”
The men’s team returns 11 of the 13 All-Americans from last season and the entire NCAA champion 800-yard freestyle relay team, which is composed of redshirt senior Sebastien Rousseau, sophomore Pawel Werner, senior Marcin Cieslak and junior Dan Wallace.
Coming off her second NCAA title in March with a victory in the 400-yard individual medley, Elizabeth Beisel headlines the women’s team.
The invitational is unique because of the amount of teams competing.
“It’s a different format,” Troy said. “No matter how well we swim, only three people can swim in the finals at night.
“We may be in a situation where we have six or seven people that could have scored, but only the first three can swim at night.”
Follow Logan McGuire on Twitter @loganjmcguire.
