Their stomping shook the stands, their team’s chants penetrated through the confines of the O’Connell Center’s walls, but all of their performances in the pool came up short against the Gators.
In this weekend’s first-ever, All Florida Invitational, the Gators swimming and diving teams emerged victorious against six other teams from across the state.
The three-day meet offered competition in 40 events between the competing teams of UF, FSU, Miami, Florida Atlantic, Florida Gulf Coast, Florida Southern and Nova Southeastern.
UF nabbed victories in 31 of the meet’s events.
The women’s side finished first with a total of 1,032 points. Florida State came in second place with 847.5 points, while Miami finished in third with 733.5 points.
Junior swimmer Teresa Crippen won four events, while junior Sarah Bateman won three. Freshman Alicia Mathieu came in first place in the 1,650 free and sole-senior diver Monica Dodson came out on top in the three-meter diving competition.
Freshman Elizabeth Beisel secured both individual and relay wins in this weekend’s competition, winning eight events including the 500 free, 200 free and the 200 fly.
“It was a really long and hard first meet,” Beisel said. “But we came out on top.”
The men’s side secured the top spot with 1,139 points, beating out FSU, which topped out at 880 points and Florida Atlantic, which finished third with 687.
Senior Conor Dwyer finished first in eight events including the 200-yard individual medley, the 100-yard butterfly and the 100-yard freestyle.
Senior Logan Storie won five events, one of which was in his contribution to the men’s 400 medley relay victory. Freshman Connor Signorin, junior Robby Kennedy and senior Balazs Gercsak each won two events, also contributing to relay wins.
The Gators won nine of their 10 relay events this weekend.
This season’s first competition was a change of pace for the Gators, as last year’s season started off with a dual meet right off the bat.
“Usually we go into the first meet blindsided,” senior swimmer Matthew Norton said.
Despite the team’s overall victory as well as individual wins, head coach Gregg Troy interpreted the meet’s performances as a guide to use toward improvement.
“It highlighted areas where we are extremely weak,” Troy said. “We’re very fit but we aren’t technically sound yet. It gave us a better overall feel for what we need to work on.”
The Gators’ next match up will be held Monday, Oct. 11, in the O’Connell Center, against 2010 ACC Championship holder, Virginia.
