It all has to begin somewhere.
The UF men's and women's swim teams start today in Ann Arbor, Mich., where the Gators will open their season with a dual meet. UF's and Michigan's men's teams will face each other with the Gators' and Wolverines' women's teams facing off against Stanford as well.
Last year, UF began its season in similar fashion, facing off against Michigan early in the season with a two-day dual meet. The Wolverines would split the match with the Gators, with the women's team taking the win (354-285) and the men's team falling short (326-272).
The men's team would finish the season ranked No. 6 in the nation, two places behind Michigan's men's team. The Gators completed the season with a 10-3 dual-meet record (3-2 Southeastern Conference).
Both Michigan and UF had swimmers put up solid performances this summer at the U.S. Open. Michigan's Tyler Clary swam in the 400-meter individual medley with a time of 4:17.02, beating Michigan alum Michael Phelps' record by 1.3 seconds. UF's Clark Burckle walked away with two silvers in the 200 and 400 men's individual medley.
The Gators men's team returns some strong leadership with senior Bradley Ally and junior Burckle. Swimming comes natural to the Burckle family; Clark holds the all-time UF records in the 100 and 200-meter breast with times of 53.79 and 1:55.02. Many at UF know the Burckle name because of Clark's older sister, Caroline, who earned a bronze medal at the Olympics in Beijing this summer in the women's 800-meter free-relay.
On the other side, the women's team loses its star in Caroline, but freshman women's swimmer Teresa Crippen is confident that the younger swimmers will be there to pick up where she left off.
"We're going to miss (Caroline)," Crippen said. "But we've got a lot of young girls ready to step up."
UF coach Gregg Troy agrees that the freshmen will be an integral part of the success of the team.
"We have to depend on our freshmen," Troy said. "We're not concerned with wins or losses in the fall. We're interested in gaining experience."
The Wolverines head into today's match having only lost once in their season-opening meet since the 1968-1969 season to Florida in the fall of 2006.
Troy is looking for results from his swimmers this season.
"We're tired of being second," Troy said.
