While the Florida women’s swimming team hopes to continue its success this weekend, the men are looking to recover.
Divers for the women scored 89 points, allowing the team to enter the swimming portion of the Southeastern Conference Swimming and Diving Championships, held this week in Gainesville, in second place behind No. 3 Auburn.
“We’re in a little better position than we thought we’d be in,” Florida coach Gregg Troy said. “We’ve got a real good situation and we’re pretty comfortable with what we have to do.”
Freshman Elizabeth Beisel will look to build on her excellent freshman season, and junior Shara Stafford, who has been out since the meet against Georgia Tech on Jan. 7, will be returning to the women’s team.
Troy said he knows what he has to do with the men, too: catch up. They go into the swimming competition at a distant third behind No. 8 Tennessee and No. 3 Auburn with 49 points.
Troy said the Gators will probably have to take risks with top swimmers like Conor Dwyer and Sebastien Rousseau to narrow the gap.
“We have some points to make up,” Troy said. “The guys who’ve already qualified for the NCAA meet, we may not swim them in the best spot for them individually. They may have to do some things for the team they wouldn’t normally do.”
There will also be some shuffling on the women’s side due to the suspensions handed out to juniors Lily Ramirez and Daniela Victoria as a result of their Feb. 5 arrests in Orlando for shoplifting.
Troy said the meet, which begins today at 10 a.m., will feature four top-10 teams for the men and women.
“On paper, it looks like Auburn’s favored a little on the men’s side and Georgia on the women’s, but that’s why we have the competition,” he said.
The competition begins with the 200-yard medley relay and 800 freestyle relay preliminary competitions and continues with the finals at 6 p.m.
The meet will be held in the O’Connell Center from today until Saturday, and tickets are sold out for all four days.
The early start for the relays may be a tough draw for Florida, as Troy said relays are an area of needed improvement for the Gators.
“We have to find a way to swim better relays and make sure our depth pays off in the meet,” he said.
In addition to vying for conference championships, Troy said he hopes to qualify more swimmers for the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships.
“We haven’t qualified everyone we would like to,” he said. “It is a real big one being at home, and then you put on top of it, it is our qualifier to the NCAA meet.
“So, we like to say it is like any other swim meet, but it is a little more than any other swim meet.”
