The Florida men’s and women’s diving team announced on Twitter earlier this week they added an additional home meet versus Miami this Saturday. The matchup was not on the original schedule for 2021-2022 diving season, but the Gators now face an interesting challenge on the boards.
The Gators return to Gainesville off a successful trip to Florida Atlantic, where the swimming and diving program combined to sweep 13 of 32 events over the Owls. The women’s team took first in all 16 of its events, while the men missed out on the 100-yard fly but won the other 15 events.
The diving team offered a strong performance against the Owls. Redshirt junior and Arkansas transfer Maha Amer emerged victorious in the women’s 3m diving competition, while senior Elizabeth Perez finished on top of the 1m event. Junior Leonardo Garcia won both the 1m and 3m diving events for the men.
Newcomers to the women’s team, freshman Carina Lumia and sophomore walk-on Caroline Pagac look to win their first events as Gators this weekend. For the men, junior Anton Svirskyi will make his first appearance of the 2021-2022 season. Svirskyi looks to repeat his performance from last season’s meet vs. Miami, where he recorded a career-best 305.70 in the 3m event.
Beating Miami on Saturday will be no easy feat, as the Hurricanes boast a talented roster and look to improve on a 19th-place finish at the NCAA Championships in March. Six veteran Miami divers offer NCAA Championship experience, and four divers (senior Zach Cooper and sophomores Brodie Scapens, Emma Gullstrand and Mia Vallée) all earned NCAA All-American honors last season.
The Hurricanes enter the pop-up meet off of a fourth place finish at the SMU Classic in Dallas, their highest-ever finish at the event. Vallée won both the 1m and 3m events for the women. The star-studded Miami diving roster promises to offer the Gators their toughest opponent yet in the new season.
Florida vs. Miami kicks off Saturday, Oct. 16th at 11 a.m. in the Stephen O’Connell Center.
Contact Jackson Castellano at jcastellano@alligator.org. Find him on Twitter @jaxacastellano.
Jackson Castellano is a third-year sports media journalism student and the Digital Managing Editor at The Alligator for Spring 2024. In the past, he's served as the Sports Editor, Assistant Sports Editor and a Sports Reporter covering Football, Men's basketball and Baseball.
