Florida, the defending Southeastern Conference champion, will open its season at the three-day Pinch A Penny All Florida Invitational on Friday in the O’Connell Center.
The men’s and women’s diving teams are looking to improve after having six top-20 performances in the 2013 NCAA Zone Diving Championships.
“We’re looking pretty good,” diving coach Donnie Craine said. “I’m very excited about where we are right now.”
The All Florida Invitational — a meet UF has won since its debut in October of 2010 — will feature six other schools from the state of Florida: Florida State, Florida Atlantic, Florida Southern, Miami, Florida International and Nova.
“Miami has one of the best [dive teams] in the country,” Craine said. “We’re looking forward to competing with them.”
Florida will be without redshirt senior Chris Jones, who suffered a shoulder tear and underwent surgery in April. Craine expects Jones, who was one of Florida’s best divers last season and is ahead of his scheduled recovery, to return for the SEC Championships in February.
With Jones out, Craine is looking to redshirt sophomore Zach Hernandez to fill the void.
On the women’s side, Craine is confident sophomores Emily Mosher and Kahlia Warner will make an impact this season.
“Mosher went into the conference meet last year, did not score a point,” he said. “I expect her to score points this year, because she’s improved a lot over the summer and in this fall.” “[Warner] is probably the most talented, but she didn’t have as much experience.”
After spending the last 28 years coaching at Florida — the longest tenure of any coach on campus — Craine feels confident about his young squad. Most of his team had never performed a 10-meter platform dive when they arrived at UF, he said.
“To dive off of 35 feet and hit 35 miles an hour, it takes a lot of courage,” he said.
Craine is focused on extending his divers’ season to the NCAA Championships in March and making an impact on the swimming and diving team’s national title hopes.
“Unfortunately, it does come down to points, not just, you know, how they’re doing,” Craine said. “When it comes to the NCAAs, the divers have one meet that we go to. If we dive well, we qualify. If we don’t, we’re sitting at home watching the swimmers leave, and it’s not fun to do that.”
This season’s All-Florida Invitational has special meaning for Craine and swimming coach Gregg Troy. UF will be taking donations of new and unused items to be sent to deployed U.S. troops in all branches. Both coaches have sons in the military.
“It means a lot to us to have the association with the military between both of our sons,” Craine said. “We’re excited about being able to help out the military.”
Follow Logan McGuire on Twitter @loganjmcguire.
