Led by a number of strong freestyle performances and key contributions from several underclassmen and newcomers, the Florida men's swimming and diving team defeated its second ACC opponent this season with a 161-123 victory over Georgia Tech Friday evening at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center. Florida improved to 2-0 in dual meet action this season and the win marked the Gators? 25th all-time win over the Yellow Jackets.
Florida started off a dominating 16-event meet in Atlanta with a victory in the 200-yard medley relay, clocking a 1:31.62, as senior Omar Pinzon (Bogota, Colombia), junior Conor Dwyer (Winnetka, Ill.), senior Shaune Fraser (George Town, Cayman Islands) and junior Brett Fraser (George Town, Cayman Islands) collaborated for a victory in the first event of the evening.
The Gator distance freestyle corps had an impressive showing in the 1,000-yard freestyle, sweeping first through fifth, highlighted by a second-place finish from freshman Jason Taylor (Plant City, Fla.), who clocked a 9:30.41. Brothers Balazs Gercsak (Budapest Hungary (9:21.23) and Csaba Gercsak (Budapest, Hungary) (9:31.21) finished first and third in the field. In the 500-yard free, B. Gercsak claimed victory (4:30.46), while the Gators placed first through seventh in the 11-man event.
Florida continued the freestyle domination in the 100 and 200-yard free events, finishing first through fifth in the 100 free, led by S. Fraser in first (44.93), seniors Roberto Gomez (Weston, Fla.) (46.64) and Raul Martinez (Caguas, Venezuela) (46.72) in second and third, and freshman Scott Sommer (Ocala, Fla.) (46.78) and sophomore James Turner (Ft. Pierce, Fla.) (47.37) in fourth and fifth, respectively. B. Fraser (1:39.63), freshman Pholien Systermans (Liege, Belgium) (1:40.24) and junior Logan Storie (Corvallis, Ore.) (1:40.58) finished first, second and third in the 200-yard free race.
Senior All-American backstroker Roland Rudolf (Budapest, Hungary) took first in both the 100 (50.16) and 200-yard (1:46.98) backstroke events, while Florida additionally established a presence in the breaststroke events after several new faces stepped up for the Orange and Blue. Dwyer, the junior transfer from Iowa, claimed the top spot in the 100-yard breast (56.96), while redshirt freshman Rodion Davelaar (Willemstad, Netherlands Antilles) took second (57.48). It was sophomore Robby Kennedy (Ft. Myers, Fla.) (2:08.13) and redshirt freshman John Lehtonen (Rochester Hills, Mich.) (2:08.43) who took first and second in the 200-yard breast for Florida.
Dwyer returned in the 200-yard individual medley, winning the race in 1:51.46, while junior Mike Joyce (Voorhees, N.J.) took second with a time of 1:54.46. Another young contributor, sophomore Jose Crescimbeni (Holiday, Fla.), took the reigns in the 200-yard fly with a 1:49.36 victory for the Gators.
Divers Anthony Lewark (Davie, Fla.), Colin Bell (Coral Springs, Fla.) and Grayson Patten (West Palm Beach, Fla.) successfully crashed the boards for Florida and placed second (295.95), third (295.05) and fifth (271.20) on the three-meter springboard, respectively, while the trio turned in first, third and fifth in the one-meter competition. Lewark took the one-meter title with a score of 327.68, while Patten (279.45) and Bell (264.68) placed third and fifth.
Just as it started the meet with a winning 200-yard medley relay, Florida turned in the fastest time in the 200-yard free relay when S. Fraser, Gomez, Systermans and Martinez cruised to a 1:23.55 to close out the competition Friday evening.
The Gators open league competition when they host SEC rival Georgia at the first home dual meet of the season Friday, Oct. 30. Meet time is slated for 1 p.m. (ET) from the Stephen C. O'Connell Center Natatorium.
The Georgia Tech men's swimming & diving team lost to
national power Florida, 161-123 on Friday evening at the Aquatic Center.
With the loss, the Yellow Jackets fall to 3-1 on the year, while the
Gators improve to 2-0 with the win
Top finishers overall for Georgia Tech on the night included Nigel
Plummer, who was a first place finisher in the 50-free with a time of
20.41 and freshman diver Brandon Makinson, who finished first in the
three-meter spring board dive with a 325.95 effort.
"I'm very proud of what Brandon accomplished tonight," said diving head
coach John Ames. "I'm proud of his performance both because he is a
freshman and has been battling through an illness. To have an effort
like this from our team against a team like Florida is a huge
accomplishment and will give us confidence as we go through the
season."
The first event of the day was the 200-medley relay, as the team of
Ilia Ayzenshtok, Jeremy Jackson, Sullivan Lynch and Plummer hit the wall
in 1:32.50 to finish just behind Florida and earn four team points for
the Yellow Jackets. Next in the 1000-free, Kevin Morgan was the top
finisher Georgia Tech finishing in 9:55.07.
In the 200-free, Travis Wagner was Tech's top finisher, hitting the
wall in 1:41.54 to earn a fourth-place finish. In the 100-back,
Ayzenshtok finished in 51.49 to earn three points for the Yellow
Jackets, while in the 100-breast, Matthew Vaughan hit the wall in 57.78
to also earn three points for Georgia Tech.
In the 200-fly, Ralph Long was the Jackets' top finisher in 1:54.62,
while in the 50-free, Garret Robberson finished third in 20.69.
In the one-meter springboard dive, Makinson registered his first strong
finish of the day with a 325.95 effort that just missed a 327.68 effort
by Florida. The mark for Makinson in the event was 30 points better than
his previous best.
In the 200-back, Ayzenshtok was once again Georgia Tech's top finisher,
hitting the wall in 1:54.77. Senor Way Joe Lee finished right behind
Ayzenshtok in 1:55.63. In the 200-breast, Vaughan registered the top
time for the Yellow Jackets, hitting the wall in 2:10.95.
In the 500-free, Colin Schouten finished second in 4:53.31, while Kevin
Morgan finished third in 4:53.97. Rounding out the events on the day was
the three-meter springboard dive that Makinson was victorious in. Fellow
freshman Chris Khosravi also had a strong performance placing second in
the event with a 284.70 effort.
The Yellow Jackets return action on Oct. 30 when they take on ACC-rival
Duke and Houston in Durham, N.C. Action begins at 6 p.m.
