From the first day of competition in the Georgia Tech Invitational, Florida’s women were in contention.
The team battled Clemson, FIU, Florida State, Gardner-Webb, NC State and host Georgia Tech in the three-day meet.
However, after a weekend of outstanding competition, No. 5 UF came up short against FSU, scoring 933.5 points to the Seminoles’ 977.5.
UF began the invitational Friday with a good performance, claiming second place in the 200-yard freestyle relay.
The team of sophomore Shara Stafford, senior Gemma Spofforth, senior Stephanie Napier and sophomore Sarah Bateman finished in 1:33.16, behind FSU (1:32.09).
Stafford continued to lead UF and had a busy three days, placement-wise. She teamed-up with fellow Gators to capture the 200 medley relay, the 800 free relay and finished second in the 400 medley relay.
Individually, Stafford gathered a bulk of the team’s points. She won the 200 individual medley and the 200 free, and the sophomore finished fifth in the 100 backstroke.
“She had a great weekend,” Coach Gregg Troy said. “She’d been a little sick earlier in the year so her dual meets weren’t quite as good, but she was outstanding all week.”
Stafford said the athletes took confidence from the weekend performance in Georgia because they saw what they were capable of, even with the little rest they got over the three days.
She added the team has a simple recipe for success moving forward.
“We just have to keep doing what we’ve been doing all along this season and not worry about anybody else, just focus on our team goals and what we need to get done,” Stafford said.
Overall, Troy wasn’t too pleased with the way the scores panned out but said the focus would be on the end-of-year championships.
“We were on the short end of the competition, which we are never happy about, but as strong as our conference is, we have to focus on the national meet,” he said.
On the men’s side, No. 4 UF was toppled by the Seminoles in Georgia this weekend, falling in second-place with 787 points behind the Seminoles’ 1055.
Despite the final standings, Troy was happy with what he saw from the men.
“We had some young guys step up in big performances,” Troy said. “We made our “B” standard in almost all of our relays, which was one of our goals for the fall.”
In other weekend competition, UF’s women finished fifth overall in the South Carolina Invitational, while the men finished fourth. On both sides, North Carolina took the overall first-place.
