The Florida women’s swimming and diving team started its season with a bang on Saturday after defeating Southeastern Conference opponent Arkansas in its season opener.
The Gators (1-0, 1-0 SEC) won 12 of 16 events en route to defeating the Razorbacks (0-1, 0-1 SEC) 189.5-110.5 in the O’Connell Center. The victory improved UF’s record in season-opening dual meets to 42-2 all-time with a 14-1 record in SEC opening duals.
The Gators were led by junior Natalie Hinds, who won three individual events (50-yard freestyle, 100-yard freestyle, and 100-yard butterfly) in addition to being a member of the first place 200-yard medley relay team that opened up the swimming events on Saturday.
The biggest individual rout came from Megan Rankin, who won the 1,000-yard freestyle by more than 11 seconds.
“It’s a great way to open the season,” coach Gregg Troy said. “A conference opponent, we got a lot of people some experience to get a chance to race real early and find out what it’s like in the SEC. We had some good performances and some that weren’t quite what we want to see but we have some work to do.”
Troy also talked about some individuals who did well and what they need to do as a team moving forward.
“Obviously Natalie Hinds is a quality athlete, she gets up and races well. But we’re going to have to have a few more go-to people,” Troy said. “When you lose people like Elizabeth Beisel who you can put any place in the meet, we had to use Jessica Thielmann in different places today and forced her in a lot more swims than she’s used to and she responded real well and those types of things will be real key for us.”
It was also the debut of coach Dale Schultz who comes over from Arkansas as the new Gators diving coach.
Schultz became the successor for coach Donnie Craine, who died in a boating accident last April.
“It was tough because I kept watching the Arkansas divers in the water during the warmups and thinking, ‘oh I missed their dive’, but it was good. It’s good to get the first one out of the way with the transition that has happened.”
The Gators remained undefeated all-time against the Razorbacks, improving to 6-0. Now they will build on the opening win as they head into the weekend-long Invitational next week.
Florida hosts the Pinch A Penny All Florida Invitational next weekend, Oct. 3-5, in the O’Connell Center Natatorium. The men’s team will make their debut as they, along with the women, will look to win their fifth consecutive title at this event.
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Nathalie Hinds jumps into the pool for her leg of the 200 IM relay during Florida's 189.5-110.5 win against Arkansas on Saturday in the O'Connell Center.
