Kahlia Warner has been the brightest star on Florida’s swimming and diving team over the past month.
The senior diver from Queensland, Australia, captured two Southeastern Conference Championships during February’s SEC meet. Not only did she qualify for her second-consecutive NCAA meet in last week’s NCAA diving zone event, but also managed to win two of the three events last week and qualified for all three diving events this week in Atlanta.
In her first diving event of the meet — the 1-meter dive — Warner set the tempo early by finishing first in the preliminary round. Later in the evening, despite struggling on her last three dives, she earned her second career All-America honor and matched her performance in the 1-meter dive in last season’s NCAA meet, finishing sixth in the final round with a total score of 318.95.
“It was a perfect ending to my 1-meter career here at UF,” Warner said in a release. “I’ve worked really hard for this and even thought I was going for the win at some points. Looking back on this, I’ll be able to take a lot of pride in what I was able to accomplish tonight.”
While Warner was unable to capture the victory on Thursday evening, her sixth-place finish has been the lone bright spot during Florida’s first two days of competition.
In swimming, the Gators competed in all five events on Thursday. After all the preliminary rounds were finished, only one Florida swimmer advanced to the final round.
Senior Natalie Hinds, who has been Florida’s winningest swimmer this season, advanced to the B final after placing in the top-16 overall in the preliminary round. Though Hinds was not a threat to capture the victory, she managed to tie Southern California’s Kasia Wilk for 12th place in the overall standings. It was the first and only top-15 finish for the Gators in swimming during the first two days of competition.
“It felt good to get back out there,” Hinds said in a release. “I was a little disappointed with how I finished, but the most important takeaway was being able to score points for the team.”
Woes in the relay events continued for the Gators on Thursday as well.
After finishing a mediocre 16th in the 800-yard freestyle relay on Wednesday, the Gators had an opportunity to redeem themselves Thursday in both the 200-yard freestyle relay and the 400-yard medley relay. Instead they regressed, finishing 19th and 26th overall in both events, respectively, and failed to score any points in the overall standings.
With eight racing events left on Florida’s schedule in the final two days, along with a 154.5-point deficit to overall leader Georgia, the Gators seemingly have no realistic chance of capturing the program’s third national championship this season.
But even with their early struggles, the Gators find themselves sitting 20th in the overall standings and still within striking distance of the top 10.
It may be a difficult task for the Gators to overcome a 46.5-point deficit in order to reach the top 10, given that they have only scored 19.5 points in the first two days. But with two events left on Warner’s schedule and seniors such as Hinds and Jessica Thielman determined to finish their collegiate careers on a high note, Florida’s chances of a 16th straight top-10 NCAA meet finish are still alive.
“When you look at the big picture, sometimes you live and die on the ‘big dive’,” Florida diving coach Dale Schultz said in a release. “We’ve got two more events yet this week and we’re really looking forward to tomorrow’s competition on the 3-meter.”
Contact Sean Doty at sdoty@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @TheRealSeanDoty.
Khalia Warner dives during Florida’s meet against Auburn on Jan. 23, 2016, in the O’Connell Center.
