Florida shined in day two competition at the Pinch A Penny All Florida Invite Saturday night inside the Stephen C. O’Connell Center Natatorium. Both the men’s and women’s teams currently lead their respective field with 762 (men) and 738 (women) points.
On the men’s side, the Gators were once again led by Caeleb Dressel, who posted an individual win in the 100 fly (47.34) and helped lead the 200 IM relay quartet (1:28.16) and 800 free relay team (6:37.20) to a pair of wins.
Natalie Hinds helped keep the women’s team in front after swimming to a pair of wins. Individually, she took first in the 100 butterfly with a time of 53.85, and later helped UF to a 800 free relay crown (7:25.28).
The UF women stole the show in the diving well, finishing 1-2-3 off the three-meter board. Kahlia Warner won the event with 315.50 points while Teya Syskakis (294.10) and Emily Mosher (274.55).
Newcomer Dalton Goss paved the way on the men’s side this afternoon, diving to a score of 266.25. Freshman Sam Smith (256.95) and Senior Zach Hernandez (244.70) followed close behind.
The Gators will be back in action tomorrow morning for the third and final day of competition at the Pinch A Penny All Florida Invitational. Preliminary sessions begin at 9 a.m. while finals will conlude the meet at 4 p.m.
Associate Head Coach Anthony Nesty
Thoughts on Day Two:
“Day Two is in the books. We’ve got some enthusiasm coming out of our swimmers and we’re getting behind each other while focusing on being the fastest people on the pool. The captains did a great job of getting the freshmen ready today and got them where they needed to be. As veterans, they kept them relaxed as well -- for it being our newcomer’s second day of collegiate competition they did well in a situation that can be nerve-racking.
“We had a great crowd tonight and as a whole we raced pretty well. Of course there is room for improvement and we’ll get back at it tomorrow and try to correct those areas.”
Head Diving Coach Dale Schultz
On the weekend as a whole:
“We did a lot of experimenting this weekend and we had five divers qualify for NCAA Zone Meet while doing so -- we’re really excited about that.”
On the freshmen divers this weekend:
“They did well overall. Sam Smith was really strong yesterday so I experimented and had him do two brand new dives today. I had him do a back two and a half and a reverse two and a half -- and only five other guys in the country do that. This was the time to experiment for our divers as we have several meets coming up where we won’t have that opportunity.”
Nova Southeastern
The Nova Southeastern University men's and women's swimming teams picked up some steam during the second day of the Pinch A Penny All Florida Invite at the University of Florida.
Notching the Sharks' first win of the weekend was Anton Lobanov (So., Novosibirisk, Russia), earning a NCAA B-cut time as he finished ahead of the rest of the field in the 100-yard breaststroke. He defeated swimmers from Florida, Florida State and Towson, earning a time of 55.30.
Third and fourth in the same race, in the B-final, were Cory Klemm (Fr., Cape Coral, Fla.) and Cheyenne Rodriguez (Jr., North Bay Village, Fla.).
Thiago Sickert (Jr., Vila Velha, Brazil) again had a strong individual on day two, first placing third overall in the 100-yard butterfly at 49.06. In the B-final of the same stroke and distance, Thomas Rutherford (So., North Port, Fla.) was third and Niklas Andersson (Sr., Viken, Sweden) was fourth.
Sickert later would earn a fifth-place showing in the A-final of the 100-yard backstroke, at 50.43. Marco Aldabe (Jr., Alicante, Spain) was first in the B-final with a time of 53.12, while Stephen Klein (So., Albuquerque, N.M.) was fourth.
Aldabe also swam in the A-final for the 400-yard individual medley, posting seventh at a time of 4:11.43. Teammates Klein and Jean-David Rousseau (Sr., Midland, Ga.) were third and fourth in the B-final in the same event
Another top-five finisher for the men in an A-final was Victor Tarin (Jr., Godelleta, Spain), fourth in the 200-yard freestyle, hitting the wall at 1:41.01. Javier Caballero (Jr., Pamplona, Spain) was second in the B-final while Quentin Muffat (Fr., Nice, France) was fourth.
Two Shark relay squads also gained high results. The men's 800-yard freestyle was third, comprised of Sickert, Tarin, Caballero and Aldabe, at 6:48.44. The men's 200-yard medley relay team finished fifth.
Pacing the women was Malin Westman (So., Harryda, Sweden), who advanced to the A-final of the 100-yard breaststroke on Saturday and placed seventh (1:07.13).
Others with strong performances on the women's side included Courtney DeVeny (So., Estero, Fla.) and Westman, third and fifth in the B-final of the 400-yard individual medley, respectively, while Emma Wahlstrom (Jr., Stockholm, Sweden) was fifth in the B-final of the 200-yard freestyle. Also, Sydney Panzarino (So., Bradenton, Fla.) and Lindsay Craig (So., Mount Horeb, Wis.) finished within about a second of each other in the 100-yard butterfly B-final, at 1:00.25 and 1:01.31.
