After a rough morning at the 2011 NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships, Florida bounced back to finish the first day in 10th place with 53 points.
Junior Sarah Bateman had the Gators’ highest finish of the day, taking sixth place (22.15) in the 50-yard freestyle finals, improving on her eighth-place standing in the preliminary round. Bateman received All-American honors but said she wishes her time had been better.
“I was happy with the 50 free, but I knew I could have gone faster like I did at SECs,” she said.
Junior Shara Stafford received honorable mention All-American honors for her fourth-place (22.45) finish in the “B” finals of the 50 free. The award was her seventh career All-American award, tying a team best.
Freshman Elizabeth Beisel also placed in the finals and received All-American honors, taking eighth place (4:42.18) in the 500 free.
The Gators missed the “A” finals in both relays, which UF coach Gregg Troy said would be instrumental to the team’s success.
The team of Bateman, Stafford, freshman Ellese Zalewski and sophomore Jamie Bohunicky finished first in the 200 free relay “B” finals. Meanwhile, Beisel, Bateman, Stafford and freshman Hilda Luthersdottir took sixth in the “B” finals of the 400 medley relay.
“The team competed hard today, but it just wasn’t enough,” Bateman said. “We have to swim much better tomorrow.”
Troy agreed his team needs to step up if it wants to win another NCAA title, but he said he was happy with the results at the end of the day.
“We swam a lot better tonight than we did this morning,” Troy said. “We have to regroup, come back tomorrow and race tough. We have a long ways to go.”
After Day 1 last season, when UF went on to win their first national championship in 28 years, Florida was in fourth with 107 points.
Day 2 of competition begins today at noon. There will be five individual swimming events, two swimming relays and one diving competition.
