Practice is over. It’s 16 hours until the Gators jump on a bus for their dual meet in Auburn, Ala., and the pool is empty except for one swimmer still taking in extra time to perfect his backstroke start.
Marco Loughran grips the two starting block handles on lane six then pulls himself up until only his feet remain submerged. A short pause later, and he’s off. But he doesn’t get far.
Halfway through his first leg, he hears it.
“No, no, no!”
Coach Gregg Troy is back where Loughran started, telling him he still has it all wrong.
“I thought I got it right, but then coach Troy is trying to tweak it a little bit,” Loughran said. “I’ll take what he has to say and put it in my own way. I’m just trying to make it look better.”
Loughran, a sophomore, said he has spent the past three years in pursuit of a perfect start. It’s a frustrating, yet necessary, search. A good start plays a major role in any race, but in the backstroke events, its importance is magnified even further.
Of the four swimming strokes, the backstroke is unique. No others begin in the water and call for swimmers to propel themselves backward through the pool. It’s Loughran’s specialty, and he knows his technique must improve if he wants to one-up his performance from last year’s meet against No. 6 Auburn.
Good starts and better turns are areas Troy said the team has emphasized in training all week. The No. 5 Gators struggled at both during the SMU Classic last week, and it cost them valuable time in the pool.
“Everything we’re doing is directed toward the end,” Troy said. “We’re not happy with where we are at the moment, but we’re seeing improvement each week.”
Today at 4 p.m. in the Tigers’ home pool, Florida will need to see that improvement as the Gators face an Auburn team that upset top-ranked and defending national champion Texas a week ago.
While Loughran is focused on helping the Gators pull their own upset this week, he was also putting in extra time in the pool to continue a friendly rivalry with fellow England national team member Adam Brown. Loughran said Brown, with whom he lived in Australia for three years while they were high school teammates, remains one of his best friends.
Loughran and the Gators upset the then-No. 5 Tigers at the O’Connell Center Natatorium on Senior Day last year. Although Brown dominated the meet by winning two individual and two relay races, Auburn still came up short in a 162-138 Gators victory.
This time around, it’s Florida’s turn to go on the road and face a hostile Tigers crowd during their Senior Day meet. Brown is a senior, and Loughran said the friends have made sure to maintain in contact the past couple of weeks.
“We keep each other up to date, like how we’re doing in training and stuff, and from what I’m hearing it’s going to be a great meet,” Loughran said.
