Coming off a split decision against Southeastern Conference rival Georgia, the UF swim teams remain focused toward their ultimate goal, the NCAA finals, at the end of the season.
The UF men's and women's teams are set for another dual meet Saturday against South Carolina, their third SEC dual meet of the season.
The No. 5 men, who are coming off a solid performance the previous week against Georgia, look to improve once again this week as they face the Gamecocks, against whom the men hold a 23-4 all-time record.
The men gain some extra confidence as they continued their streak of having at least one swimmer win All-SEC honors this week. Balazs Gercsak, a sophomore from Budapest, Hungary, was awarded SEC Male Swimmer of the Week on Wednesday, joining Omar Pinzon and Laurabeth Guenthner as winners of SEC Swimmer of the Week awards.
The Gamecocks, conversely, got off to a weak start this season with both the men's and women's teams going 0-2 before securing their first wins each against archrival Clemson. This Saturday's meet against UF will be the kickoff of USC's SEC season.
The women, who have never lost to the Gamecocks, come off a hard fought loss to powerhouse No. 2 Georgia. The women were happy with how they swam, although the loss caused them to fall one spot in the rankings.
Wins and losses, however, aren't everything in the world of swimming. Both the men and the women had swimmers reach all-important NCAA provisional qualifying times. Seven members of the women's team have now secured NCAA B standards, including Guenthner, who secured her spots in both the 500- and 1650-yard free races last week. Gercsak became the first UF male swimmer of the season to post a qualifying time.
The meet starts Saturday at 2 p.m. in the O'Connell Center.
