The Florida men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams locked up a combined four ‘A’ cuts during Day 1 of the five-day Southeastern Conference Championships on Tuesday, but both teams still have a ways to go if either wants to secure a conference title.
The top-ranked men’s team sits in eighth place after the opening round with a score of 119, 58 points behind leader Auburn (177). The No. 4 women’s team fared better on Tuesday, racking up 140 points for a fourth-place finish to open up competition in Auburn, Alabama.
The 800-yard freestyle relay highlighted the night for the men’s team, as Dan Wallace, Pawel Warner, Nicholas Alexiou and Mitch D’Arrigo finished in an SEC and UF-record 6:12.85, almost two-and-a-half seconds faster than second-place Auburn (6:15.14).
The men’s team also finished fifth in the 200-yard medley relay, recording an NCAA tournament automatic qualifying time of 1:24.91.
The women’s team’s finished both relays in the top-five of the field as well, recording a third-place finish in the 800-yard freestyle relay (7:00.25, ‘A’ cut) and was fifth to stop the clock in the 200-yard medley relay (1:37.12, ‘A’ cut).
"I wish we had been better in the medley relays, but we made the NCAA (‘A’) standard in both, as they were good swims," coach Gregg Troy said in a release. "We wer e just a tad shy on our touches in a couple of places. The women’s (800-yard freestyle) relay was tremendous for where we started the year, as we’ve had to piece things together with that all year."
Khalia Warner also gave the women’s team an edge in the 3-meter dive. The junior from Queensland, Australia, finished fifth in the event with a 362.25 score, 11.6 points shy of the school record set by Monica Dodson in 2011.
Junior Emily Mosher finished 16th in the preliminary diving rounds for the women while Redshirt junior Zach Hernandez ended the day with a 20th-place finish in the men’s 1-meter dive with a score of 270.25. At least one diver from each of the other nine schools competing on the men’s side had a higher score than Hernandez.
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