Over the weekend, several UF swimmers competed in the Last Chance Meet in Gainesville for a chance to earn qualifying times for the NCAA Championships in Indianapolis.
Florida welcomed select swimmers from Florida State, Miami, Florida Gulf Coast and Texas A&M into the O’Connell Center for the three-day event.
In the shadow of the men’s team, which just capped off its fifth straight SEC title, the Gators women’s team bounced back with strong performances from several of its athletes, who will now have the opportunity to compete at the NCAA Championships.
After the SEC Championship meet in Knoxville, Tennessee, ended on Feb. 18, Gators coach Gregg Troy appeared optimistic about the future of the Gators women’s swimming team.
“With the improvement we saw from the team this year, the direction we’re going, I feel really good about the future,” Troy said.
The Gators women’s team, which finished seventh in the conference championship two weeks ago, competed well against some of the top programs in the country.
“We were in every race,” Troy said. “We just fell a little short of what we think, what we need to do to be competitive at the conference level.”
On the first day of the Last Chance Meet, the women’s team started strong. In the 500-yard freestyle, Savanna Faulconer (4:41.08), Georgia Darwent (4:46.88) and Hannah Burns (4:47.70) all qualified with B-standard times.
In the 200-yard individual medley, Kelly Fertel finished first, touching in at 1:59.09, which earned her a B-standard time. In the 50-yard freestyle, Isabella Garofalo (22.82) and Kelsey Dambacher (22.84) qualified for B-standard times, as well.
On the second day of the event, the Gators women’s team cooled off a little but still had six swimmers complete B-standard times.
Faulconer placed first, and Makayla Sargent touched in right behind her Gators teammate in second, in the 400-yard individual medley. In the 200-yard freestyle, Dambacher (1st), Amelia Maughan (2nd) and Sherridon Dressel (4th) qualified with B-standard times.
Sophomore Sydney Sell placed first in the 200-yard backstroke, and Morgan Kaisrlik touched right behind her in second, with both achieving B-standard times.
Like the first day, the last day of the three-day event started strong for the women’s team. In the 1650 freestyle, Darwent (16:17.72) and Kahra Williams (16:27.41) placed first and second, both qualifying with B-standard times.
Both Amelia Maughan and Kelsey Dambacher achieved B-standard times in the 200-yard freestyle time trial.
Also, in the 100-yard freestyle, Sherridon Dressel took first place, qualifying with a B-standard time of 49.59.
For the men’s team, qualifying with B-standard times in the 500-yard freestyle was Taylor Delk, Ludo Boscaino and Naza Boscaino. In the 200-yard individual medley, Alex Lebed qualified with a B-standard time of 1:43.80, and Enzo Martinez-Scarpe qualified with a B-standard time of 19.59 in the 50-yard free.
Also for the men’s team, Jack Blyzinskyj and Bayley Main achieved B-standard times in the 100-yard backstroke, Lebed qualified with a B-standard time in the 400-yard individual medley and Benjamin Kennedy qualified with a B-standard time in the 100-yard freestyle.
Caeleb Dressel, Jan Switkowski, Grady Heath and Andrew Brady qualified with B-standard times in the 200-yard freestyle. Achieving B-standard times in the 100-yard freestyle was Chandler Bray, Stanley Wu, Marco Guarente, Ross Palazzo and Mark Szaranek, as well.
Before the Gators swimming team heads to Indianapolis for the NCAA Championships, the diving team will travel to Auburn, Alabama, to compete in the NCAA Zone Diving event March 6 through March 8.
Contact Sean Denison at sdenison@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @seandenison.
UF head coach Gregg Troy (right) and associate head coach Jeff Poppell (left) celebrate during Florida's 183-117 win against Tennessee on Jan. 28, 2017, in the O'Connell Center.
