The first two days of the Southeastern Conference Championships in College Station, Texas, were bittersweet for the Gators. But day three of the five-day tournament ended with Florida’s men surpassing Georgia for first place with 556.5 points.
Texas A&M’s women were trailing Georgia for first until Florida leapfrogged the Aggies for sole possession of second place with 557 points.
In the men’s 400 IM preliminary, Florida and Georgia separated themselves from the other teams as they placed seven of the top-eight seeds. Georgia Freshman Chase Kalisz had another successful day in the SEC Championships as he beat out Florida’s Connor Signorin and Dan Wallace for first place.
The only swimmer that was not a Bulldog nor a Gator was Auburn’s Jordan Jones, a freshman who finished four tenths of a second faster than Florida’s Carlos Omana for seventh place.
Kalisz duplicated his performance in the final. Wallace, who came in second, combined with SIgnorin, Omana and Matt Elliott for 103 points.
Florida obtained an advantage in the 100 fly preliminary as it had three swimmers qualify for the final. Junior Marcin Cieslak led the pack but barely escaped Tennessee’s Doug Reynolds who could not shave the last three hundredths of a second off his time to overtake the Gators junior.
Cameron Martin and Brad deBorde finished fifth and sixth with just 15 hundredths of a second splitting their times.
Cieslak’s first place finish earned his team 32 points while Martin and deBorde added 48.5 points together.
The preliminary domination did not fade as standout freshman Pawel Werner edged out Auburn’s Zane Grothe for the top seed in the 200 free. Redshirt junior Sebastien Rousseau was the only other Gator to crack the top eight.
Werner not only wrapped up the 200 free final with a victory, but he also set a new-personal-best time of 1:33.82.
Elizabeth Beisel lived up to her reputation in the 400 IM preliminary. Beisel ousted the competition with the closest competitor, Texas A&M’s Cammile Adams, finishing about two seconds after the silver medalist. Freshman Ashlee Linn gave Florida another spot in the final as she came in fifth.
In the final, Beisel nearly won by a three-second margin over Adams. Linn snuck into the eighth spot, earning 22 points in the process.
But for the 100 fly preliminary, it was a Gators freshman, Natalie Hinds, who made her name known. Hinds beat out Auburn’s Olivia Scott for first place. Junior Ellese Zalewski was the sixth of the top eight swimmers and the only other Gator to make it to the final.
Scott gave Hinds a run for her money in the 100 fly final but fell short by five hundredths of a second to the freshman.
The women’s team for Florida did hit a wall in the 200 free preliminary. Freshman Sinead Russell was the only one wearing blue and orange who qualified for the final as she came in fourth.
Russell dropped to fifth in the final but ended up adding 25 points to Florida’s score.
Day four of the SEC Championships will resume today at 10 a.m.
