For the second straight week the Gators crushed an unranked opponent at home, but this time around, they did it much slower.
During Saturday’s dual meet against visiting Florida Atlantic, the Gators racked up a pair of 60-point victories. But while the margin of victory was roughly the same as their triumphs over Georgia Tech last week, Florida failed to match that meet’s output in NCAA qualifying times and speed in the pool.
In 13 of the men’s races and eight of the women’s events, Florida either swam slower or scored fewer points off of dives.
All week long the Gators dealt with multiple obstacles. The No. 6 women’s team struggled with sickness. The No. 5 men’s teams had depth issues because head coach Gregg Troy and nine of team’s best left for the SMU Classic in Dallas.
“As for the girls, we were hit the hardest with the flu, so we really just had to go wherever they needed us to go,” junior Shara Stafford said. “It was a little more of a shock for us to have to do that.”
Stafford put on one of the best performances of the afternoon with a win in the 200-yard freestyle, despite coming off of a tough meet against the Yellow Jackets where she had issues with nausea, nearly fainting.
Her NCAA “B” qualifying time of 1:48.76 would be the Gators’ lone championship cut of the meet. Last week they had eight.
Along with Stafford, Florida (4-3, 0-1 SEC) also received strong efforts from juniors Kaylee Doback, who won both of her diving events in the one and three-meter dives, and Sarah Bateman, who won two meets individually in the 100-yard breaststroke and freestyle. Bateman also chipped in on two relay wins.
Bateman’s participation in four events was rare for the meet though, as many of the women’s swimmers were pulled after one event to help them to further recover from the team’s flu spell.
Aside from sickness, another issue surrounding the meet was how the team would react to missing Troy, who is also the 2012 U.S. Olympic Men’s Swimming Team head coach.
“I mean of course everybody is a little bit at ease when Coach Troy is not here just because he’s the head coach and you never know what he’s going to do,” Stafford said.
Pacing the pool’s edge in Troy’s place was associate head coach Martyn Wilby, who acknowledged that though the Gators only lost one event the entire meet, something was missing from both teams.
“I think the focus was ok, it wasn’t great,” Wilby said. “I think a lot of them are looking to next Friday night. Over the next two weeks they’re going to really be under the gun and the pressure cooker.”
On the men’s side (4-2, 2-0 SEC), the biggest contribution of the day came from freshman diver Michael Lewark, whose older brother Andrew, a junior, is competing in the SMU Classic.
In the one and three-meter dives, Michael posted career-high scores and racked up a quick 18-point lead for the Gators off of his two wins.
Lewark’s win in the three-meter dive (357.83) was also his first in the event.
In the week leading up to the FAU meet, Lewark said his focus was on replacing his brother’s output in the dives. Andrew has a team-high seven wins this season, while Michael had one heading into Saturday.
“He [Andrew] just came out and told me to let my body do the work and everything else would fall in place,” Lewark said. “I just went out and tried to win both boards like he would.”
