Courtesy: Florida Athletics
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The Florida Gators Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving team continues the 2022-23 campaign Friday, Jan. 20 and Saturday, Jan. 21. The Gators swimming team will head to Ocala Friday to take on in-state rival Florida State at 2:00 p.m., while the diving team will host the Florida Diving Invitational Friday and Saturday at the O’Connell Center on noon each day.
Florida and Florida State swimming will renew its rivalry for the first time since 2019 at the Florida Aquatics Swimming & Training (FAST) facility. Established last March, FAST is a state-of-the-art aquatic center with leading-edge technology. Click here to learn more. Results can be followed on the MeetMobile app.
The Gators will host the Seminoles in diving at the O’Connell Center, starting with the men’s 1-meter and women’s 3-meter from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m., and then women’s 1-meter and men’s 3-meter at 2 p.m. following an hour-long break between sessions. Florida will then compete in platform dives on Saturday, Jan. 21 at noon for the first time at home this season.
Florida is coming off a senior day sweep on Jan. 13 over FAU. The women improved to 5-1 this season, while the men moved to 4-1. The Gators have posted three sweeps this season (Nova Southeastern, Tennessee, FAU).
For the first time this season, four Gators earned SEC weekly conference honors following the performance against FAU. Julian Smith was named SEC Men’s Swimmer of the Week for the first time in his career, while Leonardo Garcia shared SEC Men’s Diver of the Week honors following a career-best performance in the 3-meter. Zoe Dixon and Cameron Abaqueta both earned SEC Freshman of the Week honors.
Friday’s meet against the Seminoles will be the 84th all-time between the men’s programs, and the 50th meeting between the women’s programs. Florida owns a 60-23-1 in the men’s series, and a 46-3 record in the women’s series.
The Florida State men’s team is ranked 16th in the most recent College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) rankings, and is coming off a 180-120 victory over LSU on Jan. 7.
The Seminoles women’s team comes into Friday with a 5-2 overall record, including wins over Miami and Georgia Tech.
ORDER OF EVENTS
200 Medley Relay
1650 Freestyle
200 Free
100 Back
100 Breast
200 Fly
50 Free
BREAK
100 Free
200 Back
200 Breast
500 Free
100 Fly
BREAK
400 IM
200 Free Relay
Had no idea our 2006 win over UF was only the second time we got the W. Makes a whole lot of sense now why everyone went so hard at AJ’s afterwards.
Why is the meet being hosted at a neutral site?
Have you ever been to the Ocala Pool? Florida’s pool is limited to 1000 spectators, competitors, support personal, Officials and Coaches. Well below the needed capacity.
Glad..closer to us! New beautiful facility.
Probably because it’s a really nice, new and up to date facility (just no diving area), and just goes to show you the lack of attention to the UF pool as far as conditions for hosting meets. Plenty of deck space for swimmers and much better seating and viewing area.
UF just spent millions updating the locker rooms and team areas and putting in state-of-the-art scoreboards, but I do worry that having a brand new, world-class aquatics center just a 30-minute drive away is going to push back further any ideas of building a world-class standalone natatorium on campus now that they can just co-opt the FAST facility to bid to host SECs and NCAAs.
Who cares. Cal ASU on saturday though