Florida’s swimming and diving teams are starting to hit their stride as their Fall schedule comes to a close.
After three days of competition in Columbus, Ohio, at the Buckeye Invitational, the Gators displayed another dominant performance, winning on both the men’s and women’s sides, with scores of 1388.50 for the men and 1171.50 for the women’s team, respectively.
Both teams began the opening Day 1 of the Invitational by posting eight U.S. Olympic Trial times, three NCAA ‘A’ cut standards, 16 NCAA ‘B’ cut standards and five national times.
Six of these U.S. Olympic Trial qualifying times came in the 400-meter freestyle competition from swimmers Amelia Maughan (4:14.20), Austin Manganiello (3:57.05), Jessica Thielmann (4:17.94), Jan Switkowski (3:57.91), Pawel Werner (3:57.91) and Andrew Brady (3:58.15).
Sophomore Caeleb Dressel swam to first in the men’s 50-meter freestyle, posting an Olympic Trial qualifying time of 22.81, and he set the pool record for best time in that event at Ohio State’s McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion.
“On the men’s side, obviously Caeleb Dressel had some outstanding performances,” coach Gregg Troy said in a release. “He did a great job in the relay while filling in for Mark Szaranek. We just had a lot of good swims today and swam really well overall. I’m pleased with where we were at today and how we started but we’ll need to carry it over throughout the course of this three-day meet — there’s a lot of swimming left.”
The Gators didn’t disappoint on Day 2 of the invitational, carrying over the momentum from Day 1 to earn five NCAA ‘A’ Cuts, 24 ‘B’ cuts, nine US Olympic Trial-qualifying times, seven national top times and a new school record earned by Dressel. In the 100-meter breaststroke, the sophomore earned a NCAA ‘A’ cut time of 51.88, a new University of Florida school record.
Dressel came in first place in three of the four races he competed in, including the 200 medley relay that he swam with teammates sophomore Switkowski, junior Jack Blyzinskyj, and senior Corey Main. The UF men took seven of eight events on the second day.
The women’s team took first place in four of eight events on Day 2.
Seniors Natalie Hinds, Jessica Thielmann, Ashlee Linn and sophomore Maughan touched out with a time of 7:06.95 in the 800 freestyle relay, good for first place and the current fastest time in the country.
For the diving team, senior standout Kahlia Warner posted a score of 318.45 in the one-meter and 336.90 in the three-meter boards, giving the Gators two first place dives.
On Saturday, divers freshman Sam Smith and senior Zach Hernandez both competed in the men’s three-meter, earning third-place and fifth-place, respectively.
The Gators found more separation from the other teams competing, especially Ohio State. In the men’s 500-yard freestyle, Switkowski claimed first with a 4:15.43, inching out teammate Mitch D’Arrigo who had a time of 4:16.59. In the same event on the women’s side, senior Thielmann also claimed first place, ahead of the University of Kentucky’s Kendal Casey and Ohio State’s Lindsey Clary.
“The good thing to take away from today is that we ultimately had a lot of really good swims across the board,” Troy said in a release after two days of competition. “Right from the beginning, we had great relays up front and some tremendous relays to finish things off at the end. That’s a good indication of team depth.”
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Freshman Caeleb Dressel jumps into the pool at the start of the 200-yard breaststroke event during Day 3 of the 2014 Pinch A Penny Invitational
