The University of Florida men’s and women’s swimmers notched multiple NCAA provisional qualifying times and personal bests this weekend at UF’s Last Chance Meet in the Stephen C. O’Connell Center Natatorium. The three-day event served as the final opportunity for swimmers to post a mark that would qualify them for the NCAA Championships.
The Last Chance Meet operated as a time trial with no team scoring. If swimmers were unable to hit the automatic qualifying times they can still advance to the NCAA meet in events that are not filled up with the automatic qualifiers.
Overall, the Gators clocked 68 NCAA ‘B’ cuts, set 40 personal-records and notched seven season-bests.
The official list of NCAA participants will come out this week.
Coaches Corner:
Head Coach Gregg Troy
On the weekend overall…
“I think it was a very successful weekend. We picked up three new qualifiers on the men’s side with Nicholas Alexiou, Corey Main and Ben Lawless, as we needed big swims out of all of them and we were able to get them. We had a lot of people find out some new events, so now we have some choices to make that we didn’t have before. From that standpoint, this weekend has been great. Also, our younger athletes got a chance to see how a three-day format works at the end of a season. We saw some tremendous drops in a lot of our young freshmen, which is going to be very helpful for us moving forward in the future.”
On who he believes will qualify for the NCAA Championships…
“It looks like we will have somewhere between 10 and 12 women qualify and that’s about what we thought we could get there. Our divers go to the NCAA Zone Regionals next weekend, so we will find out if we will have any of them going later. On the men’s side, we will have somewhere right around 13 to 16 guys.”
His overall thoughts on the last two weeks and moving forward…
“I’m just really proud of each team. In the last 13 days, we have swam 16 sessions, which is a lot of real hard racing. Hopefully this stretch has set us up to be ready to go for the NCAA Championships, which is what this is all about.”
NCAA ‘B’ Standard Times:
Florida notched 60 NCAA provisional qualifying marks at its Last Chance Meet, including:
· Nicholas Alexiou – 200 Free (1:34.45 (PR) – prelims)
· Jack Blyzinskyj – 100 Back (46.87 – finals)
· Andrew Brady – 500 Free (4:19.67 (PR) – finals); 400 IM (3:50.43 (PR) – finals); 1,650 Free (15:17.42 (PR) – finals)
· Adam Bull – 400 IM (3:52.91 (SB) – prelims)
· Quinn Cassidy – 200 IM (1:47.11 (PR) – prelims); 100 Breast (54.74 (PR) – finals)
· Matt Curby – 100 Back (47.64 (PR) – time trial); 100 Free (44.00 – prelims)
· Caeleb Dressel – 200 IM (1:43.86 (PR) – finals); 200 Free (1:33.95 (PR) – finals); 100 Breast (53.96 (PR) – time trial); 200 Back (1:44.87 (PR) – finals)
· Matt Elliott – 100 Breast (53.74 – finals); 200 Fly (1:45.88 (PR) – finals)
· Colin Hamilton – 200 Back (1:44.51 (SB) – finals)
· Erik Kahr – 100 Breast (54.35 (PR) – time trial); 200 Breast (1:59.67 – finals)
· Justin Kaisrlik – 500 Free (4:23.70 (SB) – prelims); 200 Free (1:36.01 (PR) – prelims)
· Ben Kennedy – 200 Fly (1:46.07 – finals)
· Ben Lawless – 500 Free (4:21.47 (PR) – prelims); 1,650 Free (14:56.17 (PR) – finals)
· Corey Main – 50 Free (19.75 – finals); 100 Back (46.78 – finals); Corey Main – 200 Back (1:41.26 (SB) – prelims)
· Austin Manganiello - 500 Free (4:19.75 - prelims); 200 Fly (1:44.13 – finals)
· Blake Manganiello – 500 Free (4:22.62 (PR) – finals); 1,650 Free (15:19.03 (PR) – finals)
· Enzo Martinez-Scarpe – 50 Free (20.12 (PR) – finals)
· Ricky Munch – 100 Breast (53.70 – finals)
· Ryan Rosenbaum – 400 IM (3:52.36 – finals)
· Billy Silva – 400 IM (3:52.51 (SB) – time trial)
· Eduardo Solaeche-Gomez – 200 Free (1:35.78 (PR) – prelims); 200 Fly (1:43.35 (PR) – finals)
· Eric Stobbe – 500 Free (4:24.96 (PR) – finals)
· Mark Szaranek – 200 Free (1:35.89 (PR) – time trial); 200 Back (1:45.91 (PR) – finals)
· Luke Torres – 200 Fly (1:46.94 – prelims)
· Dan Wallace – 200 IM (1:44.16 (SB) – time trial); 200 Breast (1:57.66 (PR) – finals)
· Pawel Werner – 200 Free (1:35.52 – finals)
· Autumn Finke – 1,650 Free (16:19.43 – finals)
· Natalie Hinds – 50 Free (22.60 – finals); 100 Back (53.36 (PR) – finals); 200 Back (1:55.40 (PR) – finals)
· Georgia Hohmann – 400 IM (4:10.32 (PR) – finals); 200 Fly (1:57.78 (PR) – finals)
· Sierra Kuhn – 200 IM (2:01.11 (PR) – prelims); 400 IM (4:13.12 (PR) – finals); 200 Fly (1:59.16 – prelims)
· Ashlee Linn – 200 Free (1:46.33 (PR) – finals)
· Amelia Maughan – 500 Free (4:47.79 (PR) – finals); 100 Free (49.58 (PR) – finals)
· Lindsey McKnight – 500 Free (4:42.36 (PR) – finals); 400 IM (4:10.35 (PR) – finals); 100 Breast (1:02.15 – time trial)
· Theresa Michalak – 100 Fly (53.94 (PR) – finals); 200 Fly (1:55.69 (PR) – finals)
· Megan Rankin – 1,650 Free (16:21.51 (SB) – finals)
· Paige Scheriger – 200 Breast (2:15.70 – finals)
· Jordan Smith – 400 IM (4:13.60 – time trial)
· Summer Stephens – 400 IM (4:18.50 – prelims)
· Jessica Thielmann – 200 Free (1:47.48 (PR) – finals); 200 Fly (1:58.69 (PR) – finals)
· Alyssa Yambor-Maul – 200 Fly (1:57.23 – finals)
*Bold denotes that he/she has already achieved an NCAA automatic qualifying time as an individual in a different event than listed above, or as a member of UF relay team
*PR = personal record
*SB = season best
Next Up:
UF's divers will look to qualify for the NCAA meet in Athens, Ga. from Mar. 9-11 at the NCAA Zone B Diving regional meet. The women's NCAA meet will be held from Mar. 19-21 in Greensboro, N.C. and the men's championships will be held a week later in Iowa City, Iowa (Mar. 26-28).
