Florida tops Arkansas, Kansas

With nine of its top dual meet scorers in Dallas at the SMU Classic, the Lady Gators relied heavily on the youth of the 2009-10 squad, as well as the leadership of several seniors, to defeat both Arkansas and Kansas in double-dual action Saturday in Fayetteville.

Florida (3-0, 1-0 SEC) topped conference foe Arkansas, 175-133, and Big 12 opponent Kansas, 205-103, at the Arkansas Natatorium.  The Razorbacks added a 196-112 victory over Kansas .

The Gators opened the triangular with a win in the 200-yard medley relay (3:46.24), led by sophomores Anna-Liisa Pold (San Diego, Calif.), Carly Pike (Boca Raton, Fla.) and Maida Turnadzic (Cape Coral, Fla.), and senior Coral Lopez (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico).

While senior Kristen Beales (Arlington, Va.) took the title in the mile (16:40.60), the first individual event of the mee, two freshmen, Corinne Showalter (Sarasota, Fla.) and Sharla Milne (Lithia, Fla.), rallied for third and fourth with times of 16:48.34 and 17:10.24, respectively. First and second place in the 200-yard free belonged to sophomore Melani Costa-Schmid (Palma de Mallorca, Spain) (1:48.83) and senior Liz Kemp (Potomac, Md.) (1:51.30).

Continuing the freestyle domination, senior Stephanie Napier (Chattanooga, Tenn.) claimed the top spot in the 50-yard free (23.70), while Lopez was Florida's next highest finisher in seventh (24.45). Kemp, Costa-Schmid and Lopez struck again in the 100-yard free, clocking times for first (51.11), second (51.42) and sixth (52.99), respectively.
Costa-Schmid, Beales, Milne and sophomore Natalie Smith (Gainesville, Fla.) represented the Orange & Blue in the 500-yard free, Costa-Schmid in first (4:49.07), Beales in third (4:57.94), Milne in sixth (5:04.96) and Smith in ninth (5:08.48). Smith was also a member of the UF mile tandem after placing tenth (17:33.61).

In diving action, Gators Monica Dodson (Franklin, Ind.) (268.43) and Kaylee Doback (Brandon, Fla.) (237.30) placed second and fourth in the one-meter competition, while Doback placed ahead of Dodson on the three-meter board (275.85), as the duo took third and fourth (266.48) in the second diving event of the meet.

In both the backstroke and breaststroke events, the Gators turned to several underclassmen for depth, starting with Pold in the 100 back (56.86), good for second, while senior Sarah Peterson (Franklin, Tenn.) took third (57.08). In the 200-yard back event, it was Showalter who rallied for fourth (2:04.20) as UF?s highest finisher. Peterson placed fifth in 2:04.60.

Sophomore Lindsay Rogers (Fishers, Ind.) clocked a 1:03.70 to place second in the 100-yard breast, while a new freshman face, Sarra Lajnef (Tunis, Tunisia) took fourth (1:05.67). Pike (1:05.72) and sophomore Daniela Victoria (Plantation, Fla.) (1:06.70) placed fifth and eighth. Lajnef became UF's highest finisher in the 200-yard breast race, a third-place finish clocked at 2:20.84, while Victoria rallied for fourth (2:21.23).
Florida freshman Eva Lehtonen (Rochester Hills, Mich.) put forth a strong effort in the butterfly events, taking first in the 200-yard fly (2:04.41) and third in the 100-yard event (57.07). Pold, in her second individual event of the day, raced to a second-place finish in the 100 fly (57.06). Gator freshman Kaitlin Taylor (Orlando, Fla.) turned in a 2:06.13 to take fifth in the 200 fly and sophomore Maida Turnadzic (Cape Coral, Fla.) touched in at fourth in the 100 fly (57.21) and sixth (2:06.25) in the 200 fly.

In her third individual event of the afternoon, Pold raced her way to second place in the 400-yard individual medley (4:22.54), while Lehtonen (4:28.17), sophomore Angelina Ballatore (Gainesville, Fla.) (4:31.23) and Taylor (4:31.25) took fifth, seventh and eighth in the distance medley race.

The Gators closed out the triangular with a second-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Composed of Kemp, sophomore Julia Nagy (Viera, Fla.), Costa-Schmid and Turnadzic (1:36.22), the quartet was UF's highest finishing relay out of the three Gator relays in the event.

The Gators return back to Gainesville to host the first home dual meet of the season Friday, Oct. 30, when SEC rival Georgia visits the Stephen C. O?Connell Center Natatorium for a 1 p.m. match-up between both the men's and women's squads.




Arkansas senior Yi-Ting Siow picked up victories in the 100-yard breaststroke, 200y breaststroke and 400y individual medley to lead the Razorbacks to a split in their double-dual meet against Florida and Kansas on Saturday at Arkansas Natatorium.
 
10 first-place finishes carried the Hogs to a 196-112 victory over Kansas but six first-place finishes against Florida was not enough as the Gators defeated Arkansas 175-133.
 
“We do not have the type of talent that will allow for us to make mistakes and still be successful,” Arkansas swimming coach Jeff Poppell said. “We have to do this little things right, we have to outwork those that we compete against and we have to compete error free in order to have success as a team.
 
“We had some great performances today but we also had some performances that could have been better had we not made mistakes. That is what is so disappointing. The meet against Florida was much closer than the score indicated as there were four or five events that could have gone our way. The margin of victory in those events was very small.”
 
Siow touched in at 1 minute, 1.63 seconds to finish first in the 100y breaststroke, improving on her time from last weekend by one-tenth of a second. The time continues to lead the nation. Siow swept the breaststroke events by winning the 200y breaststroke in 2:13.93. The current Southeastern Conference Swimmer of the Week clinched her third event of the meet when she turned in a time of 4:21.63 in the 400y IM.
 
Sophomore Katie Whitbeck took first place in the 100y butterfly for the second-straight meet with a time of 56.88.
 
Arkansas’ distance freestyle swimmers also performed well. Returning All-America Jamie Marks finished second in the 1,650y freestyle at 16:43.98, which represents the third fastest time in the nation.  The Hogs claimed three of the top six position in that event.
 
“There were a lot of races that were very close and we wish we could have come out on top, but we are looking forward to the rest of the season,” Poppell said. 
 
In diving, sophomore Liana Bugslag had a strong day with a third-place finish in one-meter diving and a second-place finish in three-meter diving. Fellow sophomore Alex Roman set a new-career mark in three-meter diving with a 246.30.
 
“I am very proud of the performance from the divers today,” Arkansas diving coach Dale Schultz said. “They dove extremely well, especially Liana Bugslag. She has been training very hard, which was evident in what she did today.
 
Florida swept the meet with a 205-103 defeat of Kansas. The Jayhawks picked up wins in five different events including both the diving events.
 
“Today, Florida demonstrated why they are the defending Southeastern Conference champions and one of the top five teams in the country. Even without some of their top athletes, they are strong enough to win this dual meet. Full credit goes to the team and the Florida coaching staff.
 
“Kansas also did a very good job today. They are a young squad with a lot of freshman and sophomores, but coach Clark Campbell is a good coach who will have them performing at a high level very soon.”
 
The Razorbacks return to action Nov. 6 when they host another SEC opponent in Vanderbilt at Arkansas Natatorium at 4 p.m.