The Florida Gators took to the water for the first time on Thursday afternoon to open up their 2018-2019 campaign against Florida Atlantic at the FAU Aquatic Center.
Both the men's and women's swimming and diving teams put on commanding performances over the Owls.
UF men win 15 out of 16 events
The Florida men's swimming and diving team swam with purpose at their first meet of the season, and the final results made that very evident.
The Gators defeated the Owls 240-58 behind 15 first-place finishes by UF swimmers, including two from Junior All-American Maxime Rooney. Rooney was the only men's swimmer with multiple individual victories, winning both the 50-yard freestyle (20.57) and the 100-yard butterfly (47.87).
Some of UF's other notable performers included redshirt junior Bayley Main, senior Stanley Wu, junior Grant Sanders and Freshman Kacper Stokowski.
Main took first place in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 48.87, Wu was crowned gold in the 100-yard breaststroke, clocking in at 55.57 and Sanders finished with the best time in the 200 individual medley, completing the race at 1:48.03.
The only freshman to finish at the top of the leaderboard for Florida's men's team was the Polish native, Kacper Stokowski. Stokowski charged to a 200-yard freestyle championship with an impressive time of 1:38.55.
In the relays, the Gators also took care of business. The team of Main, Rooney, junior Chandler Bray and freshman Will Davis swept the 200-yard medley relay, combining for a time of 1:28.68. The 400-yard freestyle relay was more of the same. UF was led by Stokowski, Rooney, senior Christoph Margotti and freshman Isaac Davis in this event, finishing with three of the top four swimmers at a combined time of 3:00.06.
The star of the men's dive team on Thursday was junior Alex Farrow. The Naples, Florida, native tallied 293.85 points to win the 3-meter diving event.
Diving coach Bryan Gillooly was very impressed with Farrow after the meet.
"Farrow showed great veteran leadership and experience with some great early season diving, making zone cuts in the first events," Gillooly said in a press release.
Men's swimming will compete next on Oct. 11 against LSU in Baton Rouge, while the dive team takes on Miami today at 3 p.m. in Coral Gables.
A trio of UF women pick up two individual titles against FAU
Much like the men, Florida's women ran away with an easy team win, dispatching Florida Atlantic 226-71.
The Gators were led by three swimmers who found themselves on top more than once at the meet. Junior Kelly Fertel, freshman Mabel Zavaros and her sister, fellow freshman Rosie Zavaros, all claimed the top spot on multiple occasions on Thursday.
Fertel took home the 200-yard breaststroke (2:15.11) and the 200-yard individual medley (2:02.24), while the Zavaros sisters dominated the freestyle and backstroke events. Mabel finished in first in both the 500-yard freestyle (4:54.55) and the 1,000-yard freestyle (10:06.75) and Rosie placed first in the 100-yard backstroke (57.32) and the 200-yard backstroke (2:01.47).
The women's diving team was just as imposing for UF.
Florida's Brooke Madden, a junior All-American from Centerville, Indiana, won two diving events at the meet. She took first place in both the 1-meter and 3-meter events with scores of 344.10 and 275.70, respectively.
Senior Abby Howell (261.30) took runner-up in the 1-meter event, while freshman Lauren Snider (238.95) settled for bronze.
Freshman Elizabeth Perez (249.52) and senior Teya Syskakis (239.92) rounded out the top-3 in the 3-meter event behind Madden.
Florida's women will compete today against Miami in Coral Gables. The meet is slated to begin at 3 p.m.
Follow Evan Lepak on Twitter @evanmplepak or contact him at elepak@alligator.org.
