Florida coach Gregg Troy summed up Friday’s disappointing performance against Georgia with one word: shock.
After the women’s team lost, 158.5-141.5, and the men finished in a tie, 150-150, Troy was noticeably displeased with his teams’ showings against the Bulldogs.
“Some of them just got shocked by the level of competition,” Troy said.
Both Florida squads faced their toughest tests of the season, and many Gators failed to answer the call Friday.
“[The Bulldogs are] more talented, they’re a lot deeper than we are, and they’re a lot more experienced,” Troy said.
While Georgia’s women’s team dominated its Florida counterpart, Troy was proud of the effort of his top swimmers, despite the loss. Senior Teresa Crippen took home titles in the 200-meter butterfly, 200 backstroke, and 400 individual medley. Fellow senior Sarah Bateman won the 50- and 100-meter freestyle events, as well as the 100 butterfly. Sophomore Elizabeth Beisel also chipped in with a win in the 400 freestyle.
Despite coming back from behind to earn a tie against the Bulldogs, Troy was more disappointed in the effort of the Gators’ men’s team.
Relying on mainly untested freshmen and sophomores, Troy knew that the team’s inexperience would be revealed at certain points in the season in the form of mental errors – and that’s exactly what happened Friday.
“The men broke into two groups; there’s a group with experience that stood up and raced really well, and we had some of the freshman make some really classic freshman errors,” Troy said. “This is the first team we’ve faced that has been really good across the board, and we had a couple of guys make some stupid mistakes, which really cost us the meet. We should have won.”
A bright spot on the men’s side has been freshman Matt Elliott, who is emerging as one of the premier breaststrokers in the country. He won the 100- and 200-meter breaststroke and rallied to earn a gutsy second-place finish in the 400 individual medley.
