Sophomore diver Jonathan Wilcox (Bellevue, Wash.) set a new school record in the 1M dive and the University of Florida men (8-5, 4-2 Southeastern Conference) won the first 10 swimming events en route to a 162-119 win over Florida Atlantic on Senior Day at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center. The five departing members of the UF men’s team were among a total of 11 seniors honored prior to the meet.

 

Wilcox posted a score of 373.50 on the 1M board on Saturday, breaking the record of 369.22 that his older brother, former Gator standout Zach Wilcox, set in 2003. He also tallied a score of 399.23 in the 3M dive versus the Owls, diving with exhibition status due to score differential. On Friday, Wilcox eclipsed his own UF standard in the 3M event with a score of 436.13, giving him two school records in as many days to wrap up the regular season.

 

“This weekend is the best that Jonathan has performed all season,” Florida diving coach Donnie Craine said. “If we dive like this at the conference meet, we’ll be very happy with our results. All of the success from this weekend has to carry over into the postseason, or it doesn’t mean as much.”

 

Nine of Florida’s 10 individual wins on the afternoon came from different swimmers, including six team members who picked up their first win of the season on Saturday. Senior Robbie Fischetti (Richmond, Va.), swimming his final home dual meet, was the lone two-time winner of the day for UF, taking first in both the 100 breast (57.31) and the 200 back (1:51.30), while his time in the latter event constituted a career best. Fischetti’s victory in the 100 breast was his initial first-place finish of the year.

 

Freshman Kyle Coan (Plantation, Fla.) notched the first win of his season and career in the 200 free with a time of 1:40.14, as did fellow rookie Skylar Stroman (Indian Harbour Beach, Fla.) in the 100 back (49.30). Peter Hughes (Winter Park, Fla.), another member of Florida’s freshman class, also captured the first win of his young career against FAU, clocking a time of 20.57 to take the 50 free. All three of the UF freshmen’s times marked collegiate bests. Sophomore Jos Smith (Milledgeville, Ga.) captured his first win of the season in the 100 free with a career-best time of 45.34, and junior Kyle Deery (Daytona Beach, Fla.) registered a personal-best 2:02.71 to take the 200 breast for his first win of the campaign.

 

Sophomore Cody Kauffman (Harrisburg, Pa.) collected the Gators’ first win of the day, registering the first NCAA provision-qualifying time of his career with a career-best time of 15:16.85 to place first in the 1,650 free, shaving nearly 20 seconds off of his previous personal best. Junior Dustin McLarty (DeLand, Fla.) chipped in with a victory in the 200 fly (1:50.91) and the quartet of sophomore Rex Tullius (Port Orange, Fla.), sophomore Bradley Ally (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) sophomore Lucas Salatta (Sao Paulo, Brazil) and Smith took the win in the 200 MR with a time of 1:30.82. Salatta also posted an NCAA-provisional time of 4:25.27 in the 500 free, despite swimming the event for the first time as a collegian.

 

“This team is ready to be done with dual meets and finally have our shot at the SEC Championships,” Florida head coach Gregg Troy, who was coaching his 100th career men’s dual meet, said. “Dual meets are important as learning and coaching tools to measure where we’re at during the season, and to make evaluations throughout the year. We’ve seen some really good indications over the weekend, because there was a handful of people that needed to show us what they were capable of over these last few meets, and their performances are going to make our decision very difficult this week when we select our conference meet lineups.”

 

The Gators will take a short break from competition before entering the water again in Lexington, Ky., for the SEC Championships. UF’s divers will compete from Feb. 2-4 on the campus of the University of Kentucky, while the Florida swimmers will take on the rest of the conference from Feb. 7-10.

 

The sixth-ranked University of Florida women’s swimming and diving team (10-2, 5-1 Southeastern Conference) wrapped up the 2006-07 regular season with a 167-125 dual-meet victory over Florida Atlantic Saturday afternoon at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center Natatorium. With the win, the Gator women claimed their sixth 10-win season in The Gregg Troy Era.

 

UF produced 10 individual wins, swept three events and posted four NCAA provisional qualifying times en route to improving its all-time record to 11-0 against the Owls.

 

“This team is ready to be done with dual meets and to finally have our shot at the SEC Championships,” Troy said. “We’ve seen some really good indications over the weekend, because there were a handful of people that needed to show us what they were capable of over these last two meets. Their performances are going to make our decision very difficult this week when we select our conference meet lineup.”

 

Redshirt junior Katie Ball (Cincinnati, Ohio) and freshman Elizabeth Goldson (Glen Cove, N.Y.) took first and third in the 1,650-yard freestyle while each notching ‘B’-cut times. Ball’s time of 16:25.01 was less than two seconds shy of a an automatic-qualifying time, and Goldson’s time of 16:48.56 marked her second provisional swim in a two-day stretch. Goldson continued to swim well in the distant events throughout the meet, as she swam to a first-place finish in the 500-yard freestyle (4:54.59), and sophomore Laurabeth Guenthner (Wellington, Fla.) touched the wall second with a time of 4:54.82.

 

The duo of junior Colleen Healy (Cape Coral, Fla.) and sophomore Kelsy Smith (Cary, N.C.) went 1-2 in the 100-yard backstroke with times of 56.56 and 56.61, and junior Natalie Pike (Boca Raton, Fla.) and sophomore Lauren Winter (Dalkeith, Australia) combined for the same result in the 50-yard freestyle by clocking times of 23.88 and 23.92.

 

Gainesville natives Jenne Ballatore and Kristin Gilliam swam to first- and second-place finishes in the 200-yard freestyle, respectively, with Ballatore clocking a ‘B’ time of 1:48.04, and Gilliam touching the wall in 1:50.41. Ballatore later took the top spot in the 100-yard freestyle in a time of 51.97.

 

The Florida swimmers and divers together swept the 200-yard butterfly, 200-yard backstroke and 3-meter diving events. Smith notched a ‘B’ time of 2:00.63 in the 200 back for a first-place finish, while senior Kristen Harris (Holmdel, N.J.) and junior Samantha Vanderbilt (Nashville, Tenn.) completed the sweep with times of 2:01.69 and 2:04.94, respectively. Sophomore Jenny Lago (Wellington, Fla.) led the Gators in the 200 fly by touching the wall in 2:03.40, and junior Kim Larson (Longwood, Fla.) and sophomore Stephanie Cota (Granite Bay, Calif.) followed with times of 2:04.56 and 2:05.10.

 

The diving quartet of Whitney Stern (Safety Harbor, Fla.), Jennifer Funch (Cincinnati, Ohio), Jeana Bartell (Boca Raton, Fla.) and Sarah Ellerby (Oldsmar, Fla.) took the top-four spots in the 3-meter diving event, with Stern scoring a team-high 273.83. Funch (266.93) took second place on the board, after finishing first on the 1-meter board (269.40) to begin the meet, and Bartell (265.28) and Ellerby (263.33) rounded out the top-four finishes.

 

Despite honoring the Florida seniors prior to the meet, the junior quartet of Healy, Pike, Larson and Vanderbilt would have posted a first-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:34.18), had the Gators not swam the final three events as exhibition races.

 

Florida swimmers will remain idle for the next two weeks before traveling to Kentucky for the 2007 SEC Swimming Championships, but the diving squad will compete again next weekend in Lexington, Ky., at the 2007 SEC Diving Championships.