The first meet of the season ended in tough losses for both Florida swimming and diving programs against Georgia.
The women fell to the No. 4 Bulldogs 184-116. The men took a 165.5-134.5 loss to the Bulldogs, who were ranked below them at No. 8.
The main struggle for the women was keeping Georgia out of first place. Out of 14 swim events, the Gators only managed to secure one first-place victory.
Freshman Lain Shahboz earned the only first-place finish for the Gators in the 100-yard backstroke. She finished the race with a time of 54.86 seconds, beating out Georgia’s Gabi Fa’Amausili by .03 seconds.
Despite the loss, the Gators still had strong performances from some new Gator swimmers.
In addition to being the only Gator swimmer to win an event, Shahboz secured a second-place finish for the Gators in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 1:59.84. She also helped the Gators in their second-place 200-yard medley relay.
Sophomore Katie Mack finished in second place in both of her individual races, her first in a Gator swimsuit. In the 50-yard freestyle, she fell just .07 seconds short of Georgia’s Maxine Parker with a time of 22.87 seconds. Mack fell just short of Parker again in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 50.24 seconds.
The Gators dominated on the diving board, though. In the 3-meter dive, UF swept the top three spots. Elizabeth Perez took the win with a final score of 343.13. Ashley McCool took second place with a score of 318.75, and Emma Whitner finished in third place with a score of 293.48.
The men managed to pick up more first-place victories than the women, but were not able to consistently keep Georgia out of the top three. Trey Freeman, Dillon Hillis, Kieran Smith and Bobby Finke all earned individual wins for the Gators.
Freeman returned to competition for the first time this year since his season-ending knee injury two meets into last year’s season. Freeman swam for the first Gator win of the afternoon in the 200-yard freestyle, narrowly beating out Georgia’s Zach Hils. Freeman also took second place in the 500-yard freestyle.
Moving forward, major keys for the men will be the continued improvement and usage of Freeman, more success from Clark and Ethan Beach in the backstroke and elevating the 200-yard medley relay in which Georgia’s teams took both first and second place due to a Florida A-team disqualification.
The women will hit the pool again on Nov. 5 at home against the Miami Hurricanes. The men will not return to action until the U.S. Open, set for Nov. 12-14 in Sarasota, Florida.
Contact Sara Kate Dyson at skatedyson@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter @sarakatedyson.
