Florida’s men’s swimming and diving team extended its win streak to three by beating Auburn 163-137 on Saturday, while the women’s team fell 197-103.
Unbothered by Saturday’s severe weather, which delayed the meet’s start time by 45 minutes, the No. 10-ranked Gators men’s team pulled off the upset against No. 6 Auburn.
“We jumped all over Auburn up front,” Gators coach Gregg Troy said in a release. “We moved some things around lineup-wise. We saw a lot of things that will help us make decisions moving forward.”
Gators junior Caleb Dressel beat one of the nation’s top swimmers — Auburn’s Peter Holoda — in both the 50-free and 100-free events. Dressel — who out-touched Holoda by 0.69 seconds in the 50 free and 1.13 seconds in the 100 free — also won the 100 fly.
Helping out the Gators on the springboard events, sophomore Samuel Smith grabbed the men’s team 18 points by winning the 1-meter with 348.53 points (a season-high) and the 3-meter with 388.70 points.
The men’s team also swept the freestyle events.
Freshman Maxime Rooney won the 200 free, out-touching Auburn’s Hugo Morris by 1.59 seconds. Senior Mitch D’Arrigo won the 500 free, edging out Gator teammate Ben Lawless by 0.21 seconds. And Lawless, who got his revenge in the 1000 free, out-touched his fellow Gator Khader Baqlah.
The Gators’ 200 medley relay A-Team, which consisted of Jack Blyzinskyj, Chandler Bray, Jan Switkowski and Caleb Dressel, also won its event with a recorded time of 1:26.75.
For the Gators women’s team, the story was different.
In the past three seasons, the Gators women’s team has swept Auburn. Saturday, however, the women couldn’t get things going against the talented Tigers team.
“We got off to a really slow start for the women,” Troy said. “We certainly would've liked to have scored a little bit better, but it was a good Auburn team and a lot of good races.”
A bright spot for the women’s team Saturday, however, was in the diving events, with freshman Brooke Madden taking the 1-meter (305.03) and Teya Syskakis taking the 3-meter (295.35)
Winning the 200 back, Florida Sophomore Sydney Sell was another positive taken from Florida’s defeat Saturday.
“We ran all the races – we just didn't do as good a job in closing the deal,” Troy said. “I'm really proud of the way they turned it around. The second half of the meet was much better.”
Next Saturday, the Gators return to the O’Connell Center to take on the Tennessee Volunteers at 10 a.m.
Contact Sean Denison at sdenison@alligator.org or follow him on Twitter @seandenison
Caeleb Dressel touches the wall at the end of his leg of the 400 meter freestyle relay during Florida’s meet against Auburn on Jan. 23, 2016, in the O’Connell Center.
