Florida swim and dive has one meet remaining ahead of the Southeastern Conference Championships. The Gators remained undefeated in SEC dual-meet play after shutting the door on No. 15/13 Auburn.
The No. 8 women’s team (5-1, 3-0) showed up against the Tigers. The group took home first place in 12 of its 14 events, totaling 179 points to Auburn’s 119. The Gators have now posted more than 170 points in three consecutive meets.
Headlining the top-10 program was Lainy Kruger. The junior finished first in her two individual events and came out on top of the women’s 400-yard freestyle relay. Kruger’s 100-yard freestyle and 200-yard freestyle victories came with a combined winning time differential of just 0:01:13. She narrowly pulled ahead of Auburn’s Lisa Klevanovich in the 100-yard freestyle by 0:05.
Alongside Kruger in the 400-yard freestyle relay was fellow junior Catie Choate. The two-time All-American helped Florida notch 40 points on the day. Choate finished in first place in the women’s 100-yard backstroke and 200-yard backstroke. In addition to her first relay win, she and the rest of Florida’s A-team won the women’s 200-yard medley relay.
Choate kicked off the race ahead of sophomores Anita Bottazzo and Reese Addison and freshman Beatriz Bezerra. The youngest of the bunch tallied the quickest split of the race at just 22:70.
Bottazzo came into the meet ranked No. 1 in the conference in both the 200-yard and 100-yard breaststroke. The Venice, Italy, native grabbed first in the latter, finishing with more than two seconds to spare ahead of the competition.
Friday was Auburn’s first action as a program since ringing in 2026. The dual meet was also the first between the two programs since 2022. Both the Gators men and women hold the all-time record at 33-17 and 27-16, respectively.
Florida was coming off immense success since it last hit the pool. The Gators swept LSU on Jan. 9, tallying eight event outright wins.
No. 5 Gators men (5-1, 3-0) picked up 11 first-place finishes of their own. Leading the charge was senior Josh Liendo. The two-time Olympian competed in four total events against Auburn and placed first in each.
Liendo kicked off his day with a victory in the men’s 50-yard freestyle. He topped Tigers Kalle Makinen by 0:00.29. Liendo found his second win of the way in the 100-yard butterfly, when he outswam teammate Scotty Buff. The junior came 0:01.68 behind Liendo.
The two swimmers carried the back half of Florida’s A team in the men’s 400-yard freestyle relay. Sophomores Devin Dilger and Alex Painter opened the race, propelling the group to a victory and 11 points.
Senior Aleksas Savickas was also instrumental in Florida’s win. Similar to Liendo, the fourth-year captured first in both of his individual events. Savickas came just 0:00.15 ahead of teammate Koen de Groot in the men’s 100-yard breaststroke. He also came out on top of Auburn’s Maston Ballew in the 200-yard breaststroke.
Friday not only brings success in the lanes, but also on the boards. Gators diver and junior Camyla Monroy seized her second consecutive win in the 1-meter dive. She finished the event with a final score of 294.60. Monroy also added three points to the Gators’ overall score following the 3-meter diving competition.
Monroy and freshman Alexa Fung were the two divers from Florida to pick up any points between the two events.
On the men’s side, Conor Gesing found first place, with sophomore Jesus Gonzalez close behind in the men’s 1-meter dive. Gesing, a 5-foot-7 junior, holds the men’s 1-meter program record set in his sophomore season.
The Gators notched 11 additional points in the men’s 3-meter dive as freshman Jesus Agundez won the event and Gonzalez came in fourth place.
Florida swimming will be back in action Jan. 30 at noon against Florida State University at the Florida Aquatics Swimming and Training facility in Ocala. Gators diving will also face FSU on Jan 30. at 11 a.m. at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center Natatorium. Both meets will conclude regular season action.
Contact Riley Orovitz at rorovitz@alligator.org. Follow her on X @rileyorovitz.
Riley is a sophomore sports journalism student in her second semester at The Alligator. She is the beat reporter for Gators Swim & Dive while also contrubuting to the Gators Football Beat. She previously served in the same role in her first semester with the newspaper. Riley is an avid South Florida sports fan and enjoys playing/following all sports in her free time.
