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Thursday, March 28, 2024
NEWS  |  CAMPUS

UF men clinch SEC Championship, women finish third

For the second consecutive year, the Southeastern Conference crown belongs to the top-ranked Gators men’s swimming and diving team.

Florida led off the meet strong, winning the first five swimming events at the conference championships on Day 1 and 2, but still trailed No. 13 Auburn after the second day of competition.

The Gators relied on their strengths over the final three days to defend the title.

Redshirt senior Sebastien Rousseau earned his first individual SEC championship in the 200-yard individual medley (1:42.22) on Day 2 and seemed to like wearing gold, as he went on to win the 200-yard freestyle (1:33.23) and the 200-yard butterfly (1:41.07) over the next two days.

“It means a lot to me to finally get an individual win,” Rousseau said. “It was really special to be on the podium with Marcin (Cieslak). He is always going to be there and be pushing me. We do that in practice, and I knew that it was going to be like that in the race. It just comes down to the day. I got my hand on the wall this time.”

Cielsak was less than a quarter of a second behind Rousseau in the 200-yard IM, good enough for a silver medal. Fewer than 0.7 seconds separated them in the 200-yard fly, but Cieslak — the 2013 SEC Champion in the event — finished with a bronze.

Rousseau’s 200-yard fly time was an SEC Championships record, and he was awarded the SEC Commissioner’s Trophy for the highest point total.

Florida broke two school records on Day 1: in the 200-yard medley relay (1:24.53), which Cieslak swam the fly leg for, and in the 800-yard free relay (6:13.03) that Rousseau swam in.

“It is such a tremendous swim meet,” coach Gregg Troy said. “Winning the first time was really great. Coming back to have the opportunity to repeat, I think, talks a little bit about the character of the team and the guys.”

The No. 5 Florida’s women’s team did not make the push they needed to overtake four-time defending champion No. 1 Georgia, which clinched its fifth SEC championship in as many years. The Gators fell to third on Day 4 and would end up with the bronze medal.

But senior Elizabeth Beisel picked up two gold medals and a silver medal along with her third straight SEC Commissioner’s Trophy. Her nine individual titles rank her fifth all-time in SEC titles for the Gators and ties her with Olympian Dara Torres.

She completed the career sweep of the 400-yard IM with her 3:59.26 gold-medal swim on Day 3 and had a repeat performance on Day 5, capturing her fourth 200-yard backstroke SEC gold medal after swimming a 1:50.62.

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“It’s not an easy conference to win in, and I showed a little bit more emotion than I thought I was going to just because it’s not easy to win four years in a row,” Beisel said. “It’s a lot of relief. I’m glad it’s over now.”

Beisel’s 200-yard IM time of 1:54.26 got her the silver and would have been an SEC record, but Georgia’s Melanie Margalis went nearly 1.5 seconds faster.

The only other gold for the Gators was delivered by senior Ellese Zalewski’s 100-yard fly (51.58).

Follow Logan McGuire on Twitter @loganjmcguire

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