The No. 1 Gators men’s swimming and diving team is second on the leaderboard after picking up two gold medals, two school records and an SEC record performance for Florida’s relay squads on Day 1 of the Southeastern Conference Championships and three gold medals and another school record on Day 2.
The action started with a photo finish in the women’s 200-yard medley relay that was decided by nearly one-third of a second between No. 1 Georgia and No. 8 Tennessee while No. 5 Florida was less than a second behind, earning the bronze.
In response, the men’s competition took to the theatrics also as the Gators out-touched No. 6 Georgia by 0.2 seconds due to a come-from-behind career performance from senior Brad deBorde.
When the 14-time All-American sprinter and UF record holder in the 50-yard freestyle took off from the block, his team trailed by a third of a second and was in fifth place.
DeBorde threw down a 18.52-second swim, half a second faster than the rest of the pool and 0.6 seconds faster than the school record he posted in last year’s 50-yard free at SECs. He earned Florida a gold in the first swimming event of the championships while registering an NCAA “A” cut and new school record, stopping the clock at 1:24.53.
“I knew we were behind going into my leg, but I had faith in Marcin [Cieslak] to catch us up a little bit, and then I was going to give it my all,” deBorde said. “Thankfully, I made a really nice turn and had some really good breakouts, which I’ve been working on a lot. It worked out for us and I was happy for us to come out on top.”
Setting records is rare — unless you’re deBorde.
His success on Day 1 was just foreshadowing for what would ensue. DeBorde broke his 50-yard free record in prelims, swimming the race in 19.05 seconds. With the top seed in the finals, he delivered an 18.88-second, gold-medal performance that avenged the dual-meet loss he suffered to rival Auburn swimmer Marcelo Chierighini — the 2013 SEC Champion in the 50-yard free.
The Gators’ reigning 2013 national champion 800-yard free-relay team left the competitors eating their bubbles.
Florida went 6:13.03, more than four seconds faster than second-place Auburn, setting a school record and SEC record en route to the second gold for the Gators on Day 1.
“We were defending our championship and it is a really big race for our program. We are focusing on one event at a time,” Cieslak said. “We’ll try and make as many finals as we can, and then try and win the finals at night.”
It was a good outing for the Gators women’s team, picking up bronze medals in the first two swimming events while the rival Bulldogs won both relays. It was a pair of season bests for Florida.
But it continued struggling to break though the tough surge that Georgia amassed on Day 2. The Bulldogs have won every event through two days of competition and sit in first place. Florida trails by more than 150 points in second place.
Diving hasn’t been the Gators strength this season, but sophomore Kahlia Warner delivered a career-best performance on the three-meter springboard, scoring 293.25 points in the finals and earning her eighth place.
“Really good start to this evening’s meet,” Gators coach Gregg Troy said. “Marcin Cieslak and Brad deBorde kind of set the tone …They just refused to lose.”
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Florida swimmers line up to begin the men’s open 400-meter individual medley during the Pinch A Penny All Florida Invitational on Sept. 28 in the O’Connell Center.
