Seniors from both of Florida’s men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams found success on Senior Day inside the O’Connell Center on Saturday.
Senior Natalie Hinds, who had a combined 33 victories in individual and relay races prior to Saturday’s meet, accumulated four more total victories as part of the No. 11 UF women’s 192-108 victory over the No. 10 Auburn Tigers on Saturday.
"Beforehand we knew it was going to be really tough and we knew we had to be on full form," Hinds said. "I think it went really well under the circumstances and we’re only going to get better."
One of the more intense races of the entire meet was the 400-meter freestyle relay race for the women’s swimming team. With two of Florida’s relay teams racing neck and neck after the first three legs, it came down to one last 100-meter race between Hinds and fellow senior Jessica Thielman.
"The last race was actually pretty special because I was in the last leg against Natalie, and everybody here should know that she’s my best friend," Thielman said. "It was really close and really fun."
The best friends raced tightly with each other throughout the final leg.
In the end, it was Hinds who touched the wall first to win with a final time of 3:54.03.
On the men’s side, seniors Corey Main and Arthur Frayler combined to rack up three of the team’s seven victories on Saturday.
Frayler, who was victorious in the 1500-meter freestyle and posted a U.S. Olympic Trial-qualifying time, felt sentimental during the senior introductions in his final home meet on Saturday.
"It was special," Frayler said. "It kind of hit me earlier this week that I was going to be a senior at this meet. I always looked at the past three years with friends and basically family walking with me and being done and how it was just crazy that it was just me."
Despite Frayler’s big victory and Main’s two victories in both the 100-meter backstroke and 400-meter freestyle relay, the No. 3 ranked Men’s team fell just short to the No. 7-ranked Tigers 154.5-145.5.
"We swam really well in the second half. We just lost too many close races," UF coach Gregg Troy said about the men’s performance in the relays and second half. "You can’t lose that many close races in this type of competition."
The Gators will travel to Knoxville, Tennessee, Saturday to take on Tennessee. The Volunteers’ No. 18 men’s team and No. 9 women’s team are both coming off of conference losses against Georgia this past Saturday.
Contact Sean Doty at sdoty@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @TheRealSeanDoty.
The Florida swimming and diving team celebrates in the pool following its meet against Auburn on Jan. 23, 2016, in the O’Connell Center.
