A blink of an eye.
So much can be missed during that microscopic frame of time. Saturday in Knoxville, Tennessee, nine of the 28 swimming races between Florida and Tennessee were decided by nearly the same amount of time.
Unlike their final home meet against Auburn on Jan. 23, the Gators managed to win eight of the nine races that were determined by less than 0.25 seconds, propelling both the No. 3-ranked men’s and No. 15-ranked women’s teams to victories over the Volunteers’ No. 12-ranked men’s and women’s teams 185-115 and 170-130, respectively.
“We were tremendous about winning close races this time,” UF coach Gregg Troy said on Monday.
“It was a good weekend and we did a lot of correcting mistakes from the previous week.”
Following a home meet against Auburn on Jan. 23 that featured mixed results from both the men’s and women’s teams, the Gators looked to prove to themselves that they could win closer races. They were also determined to make a statement in their final regular-season meet against their Southeastern Conference rival last Saturday against Tennessee.
Message received.
The UF women’s team, who rode into Knoxville on a four-meet winning streak, used their momentum to win 12 of their 16 events on Saturday. Senior Natalie Hinds, who captured two individual victories against Tennessee, was part of the closest finish of the entire meet. Competing against Tennessee’s Faith Johnson in the 50-yard freestyle, Hinds barely edged out Johnson by the length of a fingertip, winning the race by .01 seconds.
The men’s team, looking to rebound after losing a close meet to Auburn 154.5-145.5 the previous weekend, jumped out to an early lead against Tennessee and never looked back. After opening the meet with a .04 second victory as part of the men’s 200-yard medley relay, sophomore Caeleb Dressel continued his dominant season by helping the Gators win four of their 11 victories of the meet, giving them a decisive overall victory against the Vols and another personal weekend sweep.
“It’s more of an indication of how important it is that you do win close races,” Troy said. “One week we lose all of them and lose a close meet. One week we win all of them and it makes the meet look like it was more of a runaway than it was.”
Both teams have shown signs of dominance since their Oct. 30 conference loss to Georgia, one of the favorites to win the SEC Championships.
However, with five days of conference competition on the horizon and only two weeks to prepare before their trek to Columbia, Missouri on Feb. 16, Troy knows that both teams will need to bring their best performances to the pools the rest of the way.
“This is the second time where we’ve had a very bad week and come back and have a really good week after,” Troy said. “There’s no room for that to (happen) at the conference level. We’ve got five days and we have got to be on the numbers all five days.”
Contact Sean Doty at sdoty@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @TheRealSeanDoty.
UF coach Gregg Troy encourages his swimmers during Florida’s meet against Auburn on Jan. 23, 2016, in the O’Connell Center.
