Florida dominated in the pool in this week’s four-day Georgia Fall Invitational. The Gators quickly took the top spot on Tuesday and never looked back in securing the three-peat sweep.
UF matched up with five other programs: Alabama, Florida State, Georgia, Georgia Tech and LSU.
The No. 4 Florida men (3-1, 1-0 SEC) was backed by senior Josh Liendo. He contributed 60 points to the team’s overall score.
While the men maintained an early lead, they secured the victory late Friday. The Gators finished with a score of 799, followed by UGA in second place with 756.
Liendo continued his hot start to his senior campaign where he placed first in his three individual events. He cruised past the competition in the 100-yard butterfly, 500-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle. Liendo also picked up second place in the 800-yard free relay.
He joined freshman Ahmed Jaouadi and sophomores Alexander Painter and Aiden Norman in securing the 10th best time in program history in the event.
The No. 7 (3-1, 1-0 SEC) Gators women’s team also added a historic showing. They remained tight with the Bulldogs through the first two days of competition, but used Thursday to pull ahead, eventually finishing with a score of 884.5, over 200 points greater than Georgia in second place.
After Florida swept the 500-yard freestyle and three additional first place finishes on the third day alone, it created a wide gap between it and UGA.
The team added 33 NCAA qualifiers and 22 top-three finishes. Freshman Grace Rabb added 65 overall points and four NCAA qualifying times.
Rabb also cemented herself in the record books with two individual top-10 program times. She secured the No. 6 spot in the 100-yard breaststroke and No. 7 after taking third place in the 100-yard butterfly.
The first-year from Texas added two additional top-10 program times in team events. She secured the No. 8 spot in the 200-yard IM and No. 6 in the 200-yard breaststroke.
The latter was alongside sophomore Anita Bottazzo. In addition to Rabb, Bottazzo had a historic showing. She added four NCAA qualifying times throughout the meet, three top-10 program times and finished in the top-three in four total events.
Bottazzo, a second-year from Italy, is no stranger to setting program records at the UGA Fall Invite. She set the school’s 100-yard breaststroke record last season with a time of 57.49.
She was also a member of the 200- and 400-yard medley relay teams that each hold program records set at the NCAA Championships and SEC Championships, respectively.
The Gators women collected 22 total top-three finishes across the competition. Similarly, the men notched 14.
Florida men’s 400-yard relay first place finish was headlined by an impressive split from sophomore Devin Dilger, junior Scotty Bluff, Liendo and Painter. The team crawled back from third to first with a 40.02 split. The group finished with a time of 2:47.04.
The win also propelled the four men to an NCAA qualifying time.
On the diving board, the Gators men had all four divers add NCAA qualifying scores. Sophomore Jesus Gonzalez placed second, senior Elisha Dees fifth, freshman Jesus Agundez sixth and junior Conor Gesing eighth.
Gonzalez joined Florida women’s senior diver Casey Greenberg as runner-up in the week’s events. Greenberg took second with a score of 277.5, followed by freshman Maria Garcia in third.
After notching the three-peat sweep, the Gators will take a break for winter. The next dual meet will be at home against LSU on Jan. 9. The 2025 Toyota US Open will also be held Dec. 3 where various Florida swimmers will compete in Austin, Texas.
Contact Riley Orovitz at rorovitz@alligator.org. Follow her on X @rileyorovitz.
Riley is a sophomore sports journalism student and is the swim & dive beat reporter for Fall 2025 in her first semester with The Alligator. In her free time, she may be watching past Miami Dolphins or Florida Panthers highlights or hanging out with her friends.
